Standard advice on prevention focuses exclusively on what individuals can do to protect themselves. It does not, in general, promote collective action to address the source of the problem, for example, by calling for a ban on the chemicals that are causing much of the problem in the first place. Almost all of the funding for cancer research goes into searching for cures after people become ill, rather than removing the source of the problem. Chemical and pharmaceutical companies, who stand to profit from both cause and cure, fund a major part of cancer research. Yet we know that prevention is always preferable to, and cheaper than, cure.
Cancer is a disease of industrialization .
The only sane way to deal with it is to ban production and use of human-made carcinogens. Toxic persistent chemicals now on the market should be banned. Before new chemicals are marketed, manufacturers should have to prove that they are safe. Public expenditures for environmental regulation should be increased, not decreased. Reducing the use of toxins saves money spent on materials and waste disposal and it improves health and safety in the home and workplace.