By Craig Hafer, MBA

In The Secret History of the War on Cancer (Basic Books, 2007) Dr. Devra Davis challenges the conventional wisdom on the history of cancer and confronts the idea promoted by many that low levels of exposure to many potentially cancerous products may pose little-to-no risk.

In this her second book, Davis presents the argument that we are fighting a war using the wrong game plan, one that is promoted by those who have a vested interest in keeping their products on consumer’s shelves. Instead of eliminating the chance of coming into contact with a cancerous substance, we reduce the exposure by using epidemiological studies to determine the level of risk. These studies she claims can be misleading and manipulated to lead people to believe the risk is much less than it might be. Too often these studies alone are used as definitive proof to promote the safety of exposure to a substance.

“Does the absence of agreed-upon proof of these potential hazards [from toxins] mean that they are not dangerous? There’s got to be a better way to build our world than waiting for enough bodies to drop or sicken before we decide we’ve got a problem”, Davis asks. Considering that Davis is one of the world’s leading authorities on environmental risk and epidemiological studies, her argument is worthy of consideration.

Dr. Davis is the Director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh, and a professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health. Her previous book, When Smoke Ran Like Water, was a finalist for The National Book Award, the second only book to gain this distinction since Rachel Carson’s, Silent Spring. Having served under President Clinton, Dr. Davis is now an expert advisor to the World Health Organization and considered one of the nation’s leading authorities on environmental health.

In her latest novel, Davis covers how industries in the United States engaged in deceptive practices to delay, or confuse, evidence regarding how the use of their products could be linked to cancer. In fact, Davis presents numerous studies conducted in the early 1900s linking several products to cancer.

One of the most revealing studies mentioned in her book was conducted by the Nazi’s in the 1930s and which she claims was suppressed after WWII by industrial executives in the United States. It is this assertion, along with several others, including the role of the American Cancer Society during this period that has provided critics of Dr. Davis’ book enough evidence to sharpen their swords.

By casting doubt on studies linking products to cancer, the industries promoted the notion of making safer products and finding cures to cancers rather than supporting actions that would eliminate their use entirely. This delay tactic assured continued sales, she asserts. Her exhaustive argument is based on the assumption that the economic return on making these products and fighting the disease far outweighed their elimination. The most classic of these examples was the failed efforts of the U.S. government to fund the creation of a safe cigarette.

Not all readers will receive Dr. Davis’s book with open arms. In fact the harshest critics have been within the medical community, but this is exactly where Davis took her aim. Unlike many of her peers, who continue to advocate pouring more and more monies into finding a cure for a disease, she offers another compelling argument. Why not simply reduce the potential for the disease to occur at all? It is a good question and one that more of us need to ask.

Dr. Devra Davis                        University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute Designated a National Book Award Finalist for, When Smoke Ran Like Water, 2002, Basic Books, Dr. Davis heads up the world’s first Center on Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. The multidisciplinary center includes experts in medicine, basic research, engineering and public policy, who will develop cutting-edge studies to identify the causes of cancer and propose policies to reduce the risks of the disease. Honored for her research and public policy work by various national and international groups, Davis is an Honorary Professor, London’s School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Expert Advisor to the World Health Organization.