I once watched a surgeon slice off a woman’s breast, and coldly drop it into a dish, where it slid and slithered before arriving for its final mutilation, confirming its carcinogenicity.

Contemporary women live with the fear of finding breast lumps detected either by manual palpation or mammography. From a very early age, my sisters and I became overly concerned that our mother would develop the disease; her own mother’s untimely death at the age of forty seven being due to breast cancer. Our formative years were accompanied by an ever present unease that the cancer was inevitable in mum or in one of us; the familial angst further heightened by the growing numbers of health campaigners preaching eternal vigilance over our troublesome breasts.

The degree to which we should be concerned about becoming a victim to breast cancer, needs to be discussed in light of the findings of a recent NSW-based study, that looked into the introduction of routine breast screening for older women. The study found that around one quarter of Australian women now undergoing breast cancer treatment are doing so because of tumours that are slowly growing and could have been safely ignored. This is because women are being screened with overly sensitive equipment, capable of detecting very small and non progressive tumours.

The author of the NSW based study, Dr. Stephen Morrell, told The Age, on the 13th November, that before screening for breast cancer was introduced, the cancer incidence among Australian women aged 50 to 69 years was about 150 cases per 100,000 in the population. With the advent of screening, the incidence has jumped to almost 300 cancer diagnoses per 100,000 women.
That of all breast cancers now diagnosed in New South Wales, 23 to 29 per cent were "over-diagnosed" and could be ignored is shocking news. To understand how we have arrived at this point a brief look at the history of breast cancer needs to be undertaken.

One of the earliest mentions of the disease was found in an Egyptian papyrus written between 3000-1500 BC with the early treatment for removal of tumors performed with an instrument known as “the fire drill.” The surgical treatment of breast cancer with radical mastectomy began in the 19th century, removing the affected breast, the underlying chest wall muscle, and the nearby lymph nodes, and continued to be the mainstay of breast cancer treatment until the 1960s.

Breast cancer became a political issue in the 1970s, with women embracing breast- conserving surgery rather than the mutilating radical mastectomies of the past. Around this time breast cancer awareness took on a level of heightened urgency across the world, encouraged by the stories of celebrities who became victims then survivors of the disease. The emphasis was on early detection being the best prevention which could to be achieved through breast self examination or increasingly by way of mammography.

In 1990 funding for the National Program for the early detection of breast cancer was announced providing free screening mammograms at two-yearly intervals for Australian women aged 50-69. The cancer council of Victoria define a mammogram as an X-ray of the breast using low doses of radiation. However Dr Samuel Epstein, author of Danger and Unreliability of Mammography, says that the radiation a woman receives from mammography puts her at risk of initiating and promoting breast cancer. He explains that whilst we have been assured that radiation exposure from mammography is low and similar to that received from a chest X-ray, the standard routine of taking four films for each breast results in some 1,000-fold greater exposure.

Opinions vary as to the benefits of mammography with Dr Stephen Morrell, author of the NSW study regarding mammography as ‘a net benefit’, in that mortality has declined. Professor Ian Olver, the chief executive of The Cancer Council of Australia agrees that mammography has resulted in a decline in mortality amounting to 35 percent. However in 2001, researchers from the Nordic Cochrane Center in Sweden found that screening was likely to reduce the relative mortality risk of breast cancer by 15%, not the 30% that most groups quote. Their conclusion: “For every 2,000 women [age 50-69] invited for screening throughout 10 years, one will have her life prolonged. In addition, 10 healthy women who would not have been diagnosed if there had not been screening, will be diagnosed as breast cancer patients and will be treated unnecessarily. It is thus not clear whether screening does more good than harm.” Professor Alex Barrett, Co- Author of the NSW study, which found that as many as a third of women diagnosed with breast cancer may not need treatment, has said that the results show that over-diagnosis of cancer happens, and is an important downside of cancer screening.

For decades now, women have been encouraged to front up and have regular x-rays of their breasts. The incidences of over-diagnoses are tragic, and have resulted in unnecessary mutilating surgery and toxic drug treatments. Surely a better way is to prevent this cancer by giving due attention to our diets and lifestyles; simple measures such as getting enough vitamin D, avoiding transfats, eating organic as much as possible, and omitting the regular mammograms.

The incidence of breast cancer increased by 18% from 1995 to 2005, and it is estimated that one in 11 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer before the age of 75. I wonder just how many of these incidences of breast cancer could have been left undiagnosed and untreated. My sisters and I have avoided becoming statistics in the current breast cancer epidemic, and hope to remain untouched. We will not have our breasts squashed between two plates of steel and irradiated. We will take our chances.

Where is the apology for those mutilated?


That of all breast cancers now diagnosed in New South Wales, 23 to 29 per cent were "over-diagnosed" and could be ignored is shocking news.

The Age, reported on 13th November, that around one quarter of Australian women now undergoing breast cancer treatment are doing so because of tumours that are slowly growing and could have been safely ignored.

This is because women are being screened with overly sensitive equipment, capable of detecting very small and non progressive tumours. The author of a study into the introduction of routine breast screening for older women, Dr. Stephen Morrell, told The Age, that before screening for breast cancer was introduced, the cancer incidence among Australian women aged 50 to 69 years was about 150 cases per 100,000 in the population. With the advent of screening the incidence has jumped to almost 300 cancer diagnoses per 100,000 women.

This over-diagnosis is tragic, and results in unnecessary mutilating surgery and toxic drug treaments. Surely it is time for us to stop worrying about cancer and take our chances. Forget about feeling, prodding and probing, and just live as well as we can. Why look for trouble when it isn't there?

GM canola growing in Melbourne suburb

GM canola growing in Melbourne suburb

50 kilometres south east of Melbourne, a local bee keeper is concerned that genetically modified crops could affect his honey production. “I believe that at this stage we know very little about these products,” said Chris, who lives three miles from a property that is growing GM canola. He worries about the effects of GM crops on both the bees and the humans living in his local area.

On Monday 2^nd November 2009, a group of concerned Berwick residents gathered outside ‘Minta’, a property belonging to the Baillieus, the family of State Opposition leader, Ted Baillieu. Politics aside, it is the genetically modified canola crop that is being grown on the property which concerns this group of organic farmers, wholesalers, beekeepers and mothers. Darren, who owns the local organic food store, points out the bright, yellow crop that is growing just over the fence. “That whole paddock is canola - it has just finished flowering,” he says.

In 1890, Berwick had a small population of around 6oo people and was known for its cultivation of oats, peas, beans and potatoes. In 2009, this home of the displaced Bunurong people is a thriving suburb. Bob Phelps, from the GM free campaign group, Gene Ethics, said that the crop is adjacent to housing estates where local residents seem unaware of the potential for their gardens to be contaminated by GM canola. “The local councils and the gardeners of this area should not be having GM canola and its contamination imposed on them,” said Phelps.

Canola is used in many foods and in animal feed, and in 2008 the first GM crop was harvested in Victoria. Member of state parliament Tammy Lobato, whose electorate includes Berwick, attended the meeting and told the crowd that we are all being force-fed GM food for there is no labeling of GM products. The risk to human health is of concern to Crop Watch’s Jessica Harrison. “There is an increase in allergies and we are concerned that GM is involved in this,” she said. “There have been no proper studies done, and yet it is in our food right now.”

The canola growing on the Berwick property has tested positive for GM by Crop Watch, a group who are affiliated with the Network of Concerned Farmers, an anti-genetically modified food group. Jessica Harrison from Crop Watch says that the GM pollen will spread to the neighbouring properties. “You can’t put a fence around nature.” “Bees will go into that GM canola crop over there, and the seeds will spread all around the area.”

Greens candidate for the eastern Victorian region, Samantha Dunn, fears that the risk to the economy is huge. She says that the state has lost its clean, green marketing edge by allowing GM into agriculture in Victoria. “We haven’t done any real studies or any real testing, and yet we continue to do this, leaving a mess that future generations will have to contend with for a very long time,” says Dunn.

The director of Gene Ethics, Bob Phelps, says that local councils need to declare themselves GM free. “Already the shires of Yarra Ranges, East Gippsland, Bass Coast and South Gippsland are GM free. Casey and Cardinia need to be GM free also,” said Phelps.

Protests over amendments to maternity services.

On Monday the 9th November 2009, women and supporters of maternity services reforms gathered around the country to protest the latest attacks on womens' right to choose a midwife- attended homebirth. Outside Kevin Rudd’s office in Brisbane, 400 passionate protesters gathered to tell the government that they were in danger of losing the electoral support of those women who believed in the right to choose where and how they birth.
The protests followed a recent announcement that maternity services reforms are to be amended so that midwives can only have access to the Medical Benefits Schedule, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and Commonwealth professional indemnity insurance if they worked with a doctor.
Australian College of Midwives president Associate Professor Jenny Gamble, believes that this amendment will give doctors the choice about how women give birth. "Doctors who support homebirthing are as rare as hen's teeth," she said.
Melbourne based birth attendant Julie Bell says “ it's not about safety - it's about control, profit, litigation-protection and misogyny.”
So why do women want to birth at home in the care of a midwife anyway?
Women who choose a homebirth do so for many reasons and often because of the very high rates of unnecessary intervention that accompanies a hospital birth. The chance of having a natural birth diminishes as one procedure necessitates another, culminating in a chain of events, known as ‘the cascade of intervention.’ An example of a birth procedure that is increasing in usage is the caesarian section which in 2006 accounted for 31% of Australian births. According to David O'Callaghan, chairman of the obstetrics committee at St Vincent's Private Hospital in Melbourne, the increase in caesarians are occurring because women are requesting them; often because the mother is older and more fearful of birthing complications.
Amazing when you consider that for the hundreds of thousands of years of human history, babies were born without the help of medical technology. As to the risks of modern day homebirth, according to Hannah Dahlen from The Australian College of Midwives, 708 women had planned homebirths in Australia in 2006 and there were no deaths reported amongst these births. In this same year 2730 babies died - most of them in Australian hospitals.
As a woman who birthed alone in a cold and sterile hospital ward in the early 1970s, I support the right of women to continue to have access to the private midwife who takes the woman through her pregnancy and enables her to birth naturally in her own home. I am justifiably angry that such a right was denied me and in its place a cold technology dominated the intimate and potentially wonderful human moments of birthing. We need to understand that birth is what a woman's body does as she is giving life to her baby and there is nothing pathological about it. The momentous understanding of this female beauty has been stolen from most of us but its memory is alive and well in the homebirth movement which needs our support.