Mining, mercury and breast cancer

Former President Joseph Estrada totally banned mining during his term but his predecessors have since lifted the ban.. In fact, during President Nonoy Aquino's state visit to China two years ago, four Chinese mining companies agreed to invest US$14 billion in mining operations between 2011 and 2014.

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China's rapid industrialization needs has led to thousands of small scale mining operations in more than 30 provinces. Being the 12th largest source of gold in the world, the Philippines has become the 3rd largest gold exporter to Hongkong, after Switzerland and China itself with total shipments averaging 80 tons annually since 2010 from a measly 11 kg in 2001. Mt. Diwalwal in Compostela Valley is considered to have the largest gold deposit in the world and alone has about 30,000 miners (60% of all the country's artisinal miners). Today, the Naboc and Agusan rivers are grossly contaminated with mercury and cyanide and these long-lasting elements have accumulated in the ground water and food chain.

The typhoon that hit Compostela in December 2012 released untold amounts of mercury in the lowlands.

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In Bulacan, enormous amounts of industrial waste and mercury is dumped into the Marilao-Meycauyan-Obando river system from small-scale lead recylers in Marilao and from leather tanneries and numerous gold jewelers in Meycauyan.

These effluents go directly into Manila Bay and find their way to Cavite, a clear symptom of which are the contaminated shellfish. Both Bulacan and Cavite are now experiencing an alarming rate of breast cancer cases.

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Years ago, I visited Guihulngan in Negros Oriental (100 kms north of Dumaguete City) where I learned that it had the highest incidence rate of breast cancer in the province. How could a small and sleepy town have an epidemic? What was common among the population was their ground water which I already suspected. When the weather was too rough to travel by sea from Dumaguete to Cebu City, one could travel by land to Guihulngan and take a small boat to Toledo and then take a land ride Cebu. What was in Toledo? Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corporation whose operations were stopped when fisher folk complained that its tailings had so contaminated the fishing grounds. Guess where all the mercury and cyanide had also gone? To the ground water of Guihulngan.

In the recent earthquake that hit Guihulngan in February 2012, a rapid increase of breast cancer cases can be expected when all the mercury and cyanide were abruptly released from the groundwater.

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And with the recent typhoon that hit Compostela Valley in December 2012, also expect an outbreak of breast cancer when all the mercury and cyanide from the mining areas widely spread.

Photo from HANDOUT/Reuters

Mercury exerts an estrogenic effect on breast cancer cells by binding to estrogen receptors mostly found in the breast area, causing increased abnormal cell growth. This heavy metal disrupts normal cellular repair and disrupts the natural detoxification mechanisms of the kidney and liver (the blood factory).

Do medical oncologists ever determine the presence of heavy metals such as mercury in their breast cancer patients? They never do! So how can they ever really treat breast cancer caused by mercury and cyanide. Breast cancer caused by environmental contamination and treated with toxic chemo drugs will only aggravate and result into further health complications.

One out of 13 women in the Philippines will get breast cancer during her lifetime and only a firm environmental solution can reverse this public health crisis.

Population and breast cancer

Several books have drawn attention to the severe economic and social problems linked to having too few children.

Philip Longman, in his book "The Empty Cradle," concentrates on the economic disadvantages of a rapidly falling birth rate. Fears of a "population bomb" aside, modern economics have depended on ever-growing populations. New businesses flock to areas where population is growing, and social security systems depend on growing numbers of taxpayers to finance welfare for each retiring generation. He notes that it may seem counter intuitive to worry about too few children at a time when the world population is still growing by around 75 million a year. Fertility rates, however, have plummeted in recent years and no industrialized nation has enough children being born to sustain its population. U.N.data show that currently 59 countries, accounting for 44% of world population, are not producing enough children to avoid population decline.


Another book, "The Coming Generational Storm," by Laurence Kotikoff and Scott Burns focuses on the fiscal crunch facing the United States due to the costs of an aging population, accusing politicians of deliberately ignoring the long-term financial burdens in favor of short-term political interests. According to the authors, the difference between the US government;s future receipts and expenditures will be in the order of $45 trillion.


In their book, "Bare Branches: The Security Implications of Asia's Surplus Male Population. " Valerie Hudson and Andrea den Boer observe that China and India, with 38% of the world's population, have surpluses of young males far beyond what any natural forces could produce. Noting that female infanticide was practiced in many cultures and epochs, Asian culture has had a particularly marked preference for male offspring and modern technology has allowed this preference to be applied more radically than in the past. The book puts the number of women eliminated in seven Asian countries at just over 90 million with India and China respectively accounting for 43% and 45% of this total.


And even if the future isn't as bleak as these authors describe, mainstream economics opinion is in agreement that the dramatic fall in fertility will pose severe problems for the world's economy. Peter Heller, in his book, "Who Will Pay?" points out that society may well rue the day it embraces the logic of the family planning movement.


The Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR)  stands firm against population control policies but is also against hazardous contraceptives while advocating for abortion rights and the reduction of maternal mortality & morbidity.  


In her presentation on "Breast cancer and the Environment" years ago, Professor Devra Lee Davis pointed out that the proportion of male births in Canada and the USA have been in steady decline since the 1970's. According to her study, had the sex ration not dropped, at least 38,000 more baby boys would have been born in the USA and 8,600 more in Canada. This observation was part of the human evidences pointing to the proliferation of environmental xenoestrogens that has resulted in the feminization of nature and consequently the rapid rise of breast cancer, especially in areas of toxic waste dumping (California, New York and Florida). Today, 1 in every 8 women in the USA will get breast cancer.

In arriving at our own country's population program, health concerns (particularly breast cancer) must be at equal footing with economic matters. Whatever population size may best serve our country's specific needs, the PBCN is totally against the use of hormonal contraceptives in any form because it places women at high risk of getting breast cancer. Instead, the use of condom is highly recommended. A woman's health and safety (whether with or without child) is foremost as her reproductive system is so complex and intricate that makes her most vulnerable to the environmental factors causing breast cancer.


The Philippine government has unknowingly been implementing an effective population control program by distributing breast cancer causing hormonal contraceptives nationwide and thereby causing the death of thousands of women annually from the breast cancer epidemic. The country today has the highest incidence rate of breast cancer in Asia and the 10th highest worldwide. Today, 1 in every 13 women will get breast cancer in the Philippines!