Steingraber S
Women's Community Cancer Project, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
Environ Health Perspect. 1997 Apr;105 Suppl 3(Suppl 3):685-7. doi: 10.1289/ehp.97105s3685.
Cancer activists who participate with cancer researchers in shaping public health policy provide a different perspective on the question of breast cancer etiology. We place a higher priority on reducing women's exposure to suspected breast carcinogens than in debating the specific biochemical mechanisms by which these agents may operate. As the fruits of AIDS activism and antismoking campaigns illustrate, answers to mechanistic questions have not been and should not be the driving force behind public health policy. As such, cancer activists embrace a form of conservatism that advocates prudence in the face of exposure to estrogenic and other endocrine-disrupting chemicals. This perspective stands in contrast to scientific conservatism, which directs its caution toward the issue of proof. Unmet needs for cancer activists refer not so much to data gaps as to the failure to eliminate ongoing cancer hazards. For this author and activist, unmet needs include ending women's continued exposure to such common estrogenic compounds as detergents, triazine herbicides, plastics, and polychlorinated biphenyls.
与癌症研究人员共同参与制定公共卫生政策的癌症维权人士，对乳腺癌病因问题提供了不同的观点。我们更优先考虑减少女性接触疑似乳腺癌致癌物，而不是争论这些物质可能起作用的具体生化机制。正如艾滋病维权运动和反吸烟运动的成果所表明的那样，对机制问题的答案过去不是、将来也不应成为公共卫生政策背后的驱动力。因此，癌症维权人士秉持一种保守主义形式，主张在面对雌激素和其他内分泌干扰化学物质时保持谨慎。这种观点与科学保守主义形成对比，科学保守主义将其谨慎指向证据问题。癌症维权人士未满足的需求与其说是指数据缺口，不如说是指未能消除持续存在的癌症风险。对这位作者兼维权人士来说，未满足的需求包括终止女性继续接触诸如洗涤剂、三嗪除草剂、塑料和多氯联苯等常见的雌激素化合物。
