A Good Read

Another solid addition to the WBP Book Club is Devra Davis' The Secret History of the War on Cancer.

For those of you who may have already read this book—this review comes as no surprise. But for those of you new to this author, one thing comes across quite clearly when you read what she has to say is this: Devra Davis knows a thing or two about cancer. And she did her homework when researching the data for this book.

Davis, who holds a Ph.D and a M.P.H., is the Director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. She was appointed in 1994 by President Clinton to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, and served as Scholar in Residence at the National Academy of Science.

In “War”, she paints a grim and compelling portrait of the health care industry, and how the leaders of the industries that made cancer-causing products, sometimes profited from the drugs and technologies created to fight the disease. According to Davis, for years we’ve become immersed in fighting the wrong war, directing our efforts against the wrong enemy, using the wrong weapons.

In her essay, “Deadly Secrets” she outlines an unintentional web of lies, and half-truths, perpetuated by our world industries, in both exposing and contaminating the world and our bodies with cancer-causing agents, and then covering up or suppressing the knowledge and information from the public for many years—even by health care industry scientists. According to Davis’ website, over 10 million cancer deaths over the last 30 years could have been prevented! Also among her findings: that implementation of the pap smear as a diagnostic, life-saving tool, was held back for more than a decade amid fears that that the test would undermine the private practice of medicine.

Again, a good, gripping read.