http://www.***.com/
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID AP Science Writer
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON Dec 23, 2005 The threat of dying from cancer is on the
decline, even though the overall rate of being diagnosed with the disease
holds steady, the government says.

In its biannual update on progress in the battle against cancer, the
National Cancer Institute said Thursday that Americans are increasing
their use of screening tests to catch some cancers early, when they are
more treatable.

They are also smoking less, being more careful in the sun and consuming
less {*filter*} and fats, though obesity remains a problem.

"The overall message of the report remains positive," NCI Director Andrew
C. von Eschenbach said. "The evidence that I have seen convinces me that
we are poised to make dramatic gains against cancer in the near future."

The report said 488.6 new cases of cancer were diagnosed for every 100,000
Americans in 2002, very similar to the rate of 488.1 a year earlier.

At the same time, though, the death rate for all cancers was 193.6 per
100,000, down from 195.7 a year earlier and continuing a steady downward
trend.

For the four most common cancers the death rates were:
Prostate, 28.0 per 100,000, down from 28.9.
{*filter*}, 25.4, down from 26.0.
Colorectal, 19.6, down from 20.1.
Lung, 54.8, down from 55.2.

The report charts progress against goals set for reducing cancer rates and
deaths by 2010. The first report was issued in 2001.

This year's update noted a continuing rise in lung cancer death rates in
women, but it said the rate was not increasing as rapidly as in the past.

The Cancer Institute, a part of the National Institutes of Health, said
there have been continuing increases in the incidence of cancers of the
{*filter*} in women and of prostate and testis in men, as well as leukemia,
non-Hodgkin lymphoma, myeloma, melanoma of skin, and cancers of the
thyroid, kidney and esophagus.

There have been some improvements in behavior aimed to prevent cancers,
including reductions in smoking and declines in {*filter*} and fat
consumption, the Institute said in its report. Some of the same data were
included in the institute's annual report issued in October.

subject line correction.

Sci/Tech
Chrome-Plated Fraud: How PG&E's Scientists-for-Hire Reversed Findings
of a Cancer Study
Author: Environmental Working Group
Published on Dec 24, 2005, 08:58

A consulting firm hired by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E) to fight
the "Erin Brockovich" lawsuit distorted data from a Chinese study to
plant an article in a scientific journal reversing the study's original
conclusion that linked an industrial chemical to cancer, according to
documents obtained by Environmental Working Group (EWG).

The Wall Street Journal reported today that the San Francisco-based
consultants, ChemRisk, "conceived, drafted, edited and submitted to
medical journals" a "clarification" of the Chinese study, according to
documents filed in another chromium lawsuit against PG&E. They did so
despite a letter of objection from the Chinese scientist who led the
original study, calling their reversal of his findings an
"inappropriate inference."

Through the state Public Records Act, EWG has obtained many of the
documents cited by the Journal. They are available at
http://www.***.com/ .

In the Brockovich case, residents of Hinkley, Calif., sued PG&E for
dumping chromium-6 in their drinking water. In 1997, PG&E paid $333
million to settle the case, but another lawsuit against the company
over chromium pollution is set for trial next month.

The fraudulent article has influenced chromium regulations by state and
federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency.
ChemRisk, perpetrator of the deception, continues to work for corporate
and government clients including the Department of Energy and the
Centers for Disease Control.

The article was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Occupational
and Environmental Medicine. EWG has written the journal's editors
urging them to set the record straight and bar the scientists who were
involved from its pages.

"The scientific community must be notified that a paper circulating in
the published literature is fraudulent, the paper must be retracted,
and those responsible for the incident must be appropriately
disciplined," EWG Senior Vice President Richard Wiles wrote to the
journal.

EWG has also written the Centers for Disease Control, which recently
renewed ChemRisk's multi-million dollar contract for a key project at
the Los Alamos National Laboratory, urging the agency to take prompt
action against the company.

"ChemRisk's current contract must be cancelled and the firm barred from
seeking future contracts from the CDC or other government agencies,"
wrote Wiles.

The documents obtained by EWG show that ChemRisk employees - with the
knowledge of PG&E's attorneys - hired one of the original study's
authors as a "consultant," and conducted a new analysis of his data
that deliberately ignored evidence of an association between stomach
cancer and chromium-6 in drinking water. They then wrote and submitted
the article for publication without disclosing that they worked for
ChemRisk or that PG&E had paid for the new "study." Nowhere in the
published article are the names of the ChemRisk employees who worked on
it, or any indication that it was part of PG&E's legal defense
strategy.

The founder and president of ChemRisk is Dennis Paustenbach, who has
made a career of consulting for big polluters including PG&E,
ExxonMobil and Dow Chemical. In 2002, his appointment to a federal
committee on the health effects of chemicals was blasted by independent
scientists as part of a Bush Administration pattern of packing
environmental panels with industry-friendly experts.

? Copyright 2005 by YubaNet.com