"At every crossroads to the
future, there are a thousand
self-appointed guardians of the
past"-- Betty MacQuitty
John Gofman, M.D., Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Molecular and Cell Biology, who
has
saved thousands if not millions of people from cancer, has identified what
may be the major cause of most
cancer
and heart disease. Gofman sent his new research
to 61 cancer organizations.
Not one of them even acknowledged receipt. It is a disgrace to
pour
billions of dollars into cancer research when such institutions will
not
recognize or even respond to a discovery by one of the world's foremost
scientists.
It was John Gofman's earlier
research
as biomedical director and associate director of the Atomic Energy
Commission's
Livermore National Laboratory, that helped to end plans for licensing
1,000
civilian nuclear power plants in the United States and to stop
"Operation
Plowshare" which would have detonated thousands of atomic bombs
in the Rocky Mountains to liberate natural gas and, elsewhere, to blast out
ship harbors and excavate canals.
Gofman
estimated in 1970 that chronic exposure of the civilian population to
the legally "permissible" dose of ionizing radiation from atomic bomb
testing would result in 16 to 32 thousand cancer deaths per year (based
mostly on evidence from Hiroshima-Nagasaki survivors). In 1990,
Gofman produced the first demonstration that there is no safe
(risk-free) level of exposure to ionizing radiation -- a conclusion
emphatically shared in 1995 by Britain's National Radiological
Protection Board.
It was research
by John Gofman (which I gave to senator Orin Hatch) that helped give
the
"Downwinders bill"
the scientific backing to be passed into law. (The Downwinders
Bill compensates victims of cancer caused by atomic bomb
testing.)
The cessation of atomic bomb
testing
and stopping "Operation Plowshare" with the planned plutonium
economy,
saved thousands and possibly millions of people from cancer
death.
Not since Semmelweis, Lister, Jenner, Fleming, or Salk have more lives
been
saved.
Two monumental new studies
by
Gofman (1996, 1999 that do not share the same methods or data) both
find that in the United States, ionizing radiation from
medical X-rays is a necessary co-actor causing most breast
cancer (between 75 and 90% of cases). The
1999 study finds that medical X-rays are a necessary co-actor also in
over
50% of all other types of cancer, and 60% of coronary artery
disease. Both of the new studies have been ignored by editors of
leading medical journals
and cancer organizations. Press releases about the studies,
issued
by the University of California, have also been ignored by the
media. Prior to his latest research, more than 120 articles by
Gofman were published in scientific journals. Was Gofman a
credible scientist before, but not now? What is the difference?
Why do newspapers, the media, medical journals, and nearly
all
medical doctors who use X-rays ignore Gofman's research? No one
wants
to face the fact that doctors cause cancer or heart disease - in the
past or
present. Doctors do not want to be constrained in how they
practice medicine or have
their judgment questioned when they order X-rays. X-rays are
necessary
to protect doctors from lawsuits so more X-rays are performed instead
of
less with no limits placed on how many X-ray examinations are
given.
Why will you likely never learn
about
Gofman's research from a cancer organization? Gofman's studies divert
recognition from their own research. Why publicize the
discoveries of someone else?
If the cause of most cancer were recognized and the way to prevent it
known,
there would be less need to donate for cancer research. Funding
would
decline or cease. Because of belief in the importance of their
work,
it is difficult for cancer scientists to believe anything that could
end
the need for their dedicated search.
The media will not mention Gofman's
research because it does not come from a medical journal or cancer
organization. Those who produce the news do not want to
provoke doctors who use X-rays.
If a cancer expert or doctor is asked about how much
cancer
is caused by medical X-rays, they get a biased opinion (denial) from
someone
who has never examined Gofman's work. The opinion carries more
weight
than 1123 pages of comprehensive, documented research from one of the
world's
foremost scientists. As a result nothing is published and nothing
is
broadcast.
Meanwhile each year in the United
States
180,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 44,000 will die
from
the disease. The incidence of breast cancer 50 years ago was 1 in
30, today it is 1 in 8. This year
more than 600 high risk women in the U.S.,
who do not have
breast cancer, will have their breasts
removed
to prevent the disease, because no one tells them what else can be
done!
Are we more concerned about not
challenging
doctors who use X-rays than we are about saving people from
cancer? Clearly
we are. It seems modern
medicine is a "sacred cow" that cannot
be criticized. The paradox of the denial is that doctors
and X-ray
technicians know X-rays cause cancer - evidenced by how they protect
themselves
when X-ray examinations are given.
Gofman's research could save
countless
people from a horrible death if we can face the hard truth.
Admitting
that between 1920 and 1960, X-rays were used to treat
many conditions X-rays should not have been used for, would be a
beginning. Listing X-ray exposure as a risk factor would
be the next step. Then we must ask, "Are patients still being
exposed to more x-radiation than
is necessary?" The answer is an unqualified "YES." Gofman
shows
how X-ray exposure
could easily be cut in half without buying new
equipment,
without compromising the quality of health care, and without the loss
of
necessary medical information. An estimated 120,000
lives
could
be saved each year in the United States by cutting X-ray doses in half
(forty times more lives than were lost in the September 11th terrorist
attack
on the World Trade Center).
Progress in the war on cancer
cannot
be made until someone will publish or broadcast this dominant
cause
of cancer - even when the finger points to modern medicine. You
could
be among the first to make the new research by John Gofman known and do
something about it.
FIRST, tell as many others as
possible
and send the review of Gofman's research "Better Than a Cure for
Breast Cancer" (see reference below) to your friends.
SECOND, take or send a copy to your
local newspaper, radio or TV station.
THIRD, do not accept a defensive
opinion from any doctor or X-ray technician who has never
examined
Gofman's work. More important than what such people know
or
do not know is what they do not want to know. See Gofman's
research
if you are told the radiation is no more than you would receive from a
day
in the sun or from taking a trip in an airplane.
FOURTH, refuse unnecessary X-rays and
X-rays that will not change how you are going to be treated, especially
if the doctor
or X-ray technician refuses to stand next to you when the X-rays are
given.
For a printable version of this web
page click here
For a review of Gofman's research,
see
on this web site:
Better
Than
a Cure for Breast Cancer and
A
Compelling Reason Why Medical X-rays Are A Major Cause of Cancer
You can also read an executive summary
of Gofman's research at: http://www.ratical.org/radiation/CNR/RMP/.
See also http://www.x-raysandhealth.org
For more breast cancer
research
- what every woman, even those who have received numerous X-rays,
can
do now to prevent the disease, see on this web site:
Could
Bra-Wearing
Increase the Incidence of Breast Cancer?
Darrell Stoddard, Founder - Pain Research Institute, 266
East 3200 North, Provo, UT 84604 U.S.A. Phone:
801-377-6900
Website: http://www.healpain.net
Email: stoddard@healpain.net
It took the FDA more than thirty
years
to even acknowledge that folic acid prevents neural tube birth
defects.
Thousands of deformed babies were born because the FDA prohibited
claims
that pregnant women should take folic acid. Now it is accepted
and
widely publicized. Should we wait for loved ones to suffer and
die
unnecessarily with cancer caused by medical X-rays?
Far more important than what we
know
or do not know is what we do not want to know -- Eric Hoffer
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