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.

Photo from beforeitsnews.com

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.

Photo from geotayo.com

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.

Photo from aboutphilippines.ph

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.

Photo from denverpost.com

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.

Floods and breast cancer

Update: Exactly a year after the floods of August 2012, flood waters have again hit the country, and the Department of Health still maintains that the prevention of non-communicable diseases such as breast cancer is in tobacco and alcohol intakes? 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/9462526/Aerial-photographs-of-the-flooding-around-Manila-the-Philippines.html


The Philippine Breast Cancer Network takes serious concern over the massive floods in our country the past four years: Tropical Storm “Ondoy” in September 2009,  Typhoon “Sendong” in December 2011 and the monsoon rains in early August 2012.

Acid water levels have most likely risen quickly because of the rains and the acid water has now affected wide areas in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao spreading into ground water that people in rural areas drink water from. The downpours diluted the concentration of heavy metals in mining, industrial and farming areas but they were not dissolved and have certainly contaminated water systems.

Residential, commercial and industrial wastewater contain hormone-disrupting chemicals such as natural estrogen and alkylphenols, insecticides, pesticides, herbicides, pharmaceuticals, chlorinated solvents, industrial chemical waste, petroleum products and heavy metals. The floods have spread huge undetermined volumes of these toxic pollutants and contaminants including those known to cause cancer and birth defects especially mercury and dioxin from power plants, fuel depots, paper mills and many other industrial factories along Pasig River and Manila Bay.

Unique to the Philippines is the numerous junk shops where it would not be surprising to have significant amounts of PCB’s (polychlorinated biphenyl) from drained fluids of used transformers and electric motors. Then there are the garbage landfills, notably Payatas and San Mateo whose tailings go straight down to the Marikina river system, and Smoky Mountain whose toxic solid waste have been permanently buried beneath former President Ramos’ flagship project, the 79 hectare Manila Harbour Centre.

In the highly urbanized industrial City of Iligan is where the National Power Corporation operates six hydro-electric power plants and where several heavy industries (steel, cement, chemical, refractory and food) have been operating since the 1970’s. There has already been an alarming number of breast cancer, leukemia and lung cancer in a city with a small density of less than 400 persons per square kilometer. Just like Manila Bay, Iligan Bay is as polluted. When the floods of "Sendong” struck in December 2011, the waterways have definitely become a serious environmental health hazard.

While “Ondoy” flooded Marikina City within 12 hours, the recent floods submerged the city for 3 days just three years later.  And what industries are in Marikina City aside from the shoe industry?  For starters - Fortune Tobacco, Armscor, Purefoods and Nestle. Despite their waste disposal systems – the floods had certainly overflowed their holding wastewater  ponds! Furthermore, all persistent organic pollutants in Payatas, San Mateo and Antipolo went down to this valley!

Our country will continue to experience calamities due to a multitude of socio-political-economic factors and it can only be hoped that present and future governance can act to limit if not contain the degree of damage to life and property. The Philippines has become very vulnerable to catastrophes. In fact, our country registered the highest increase in the incidence rate of breast cancer over the past 30 years worldwide. The recent flooding has again unleashed and exposed thousands of women to environmental toxins and carcinogens and this will be validated with the surge of breast cancer cases in the flood-stricken areas of the country at least five years from today.