Detroit’s Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, in cooperation with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM), will launch a targeted health initiative in January 2010 focused on environmentally-associated cancers.
The goal of the study is to associate cancer development in the state with existing potential environmental causes. According to the Institute’s CEO Ann G. Schwartz, PhD, approximately 70 percent of all cancers are linked to occupational and environmental causes. Asbestos is the only known cause for the lethal cancer mesothelioma.
“A medical evidence-based approach will be presented to doctors participating in BCBSM’s Physician Group Incentive Program in early December,” Dr. Schwartz said. “The initiative is being designed to detect cancers [such as asbestos cancer] and other serious illness resulting from exposure to arsenic and asbestos, two of the state’s most frequently encountered carcinogens.”
Asbestos and arsenic have been chosen for this analysis because they are substantial health hazards in Michigan and continue to take a serious toll on the state’s residents, according to the Institute. Michigan has the nation’s largest arsenic- contaminated water table, located primarily in the southeastern part of the state, along with an estimated 300,000 homes with asbestos-contaminated attic insulation.
This effort is designed to utilize existing data that has identified both workplace and environmental arsenic and asbestos, and according to the initiative’s director Michael Harbut, M.D, “We can determine who is at risk, what preventive care may be recommended and more accurately diagnose and treat those at risk because of the water they drink or air they breathe.”
According to the news release from the Cancer Institute, “Smokers are 50 times more likely to develop lung cancer if they also are exposed to asbestos. In addition, colon cancer has been associated with asbestos exposure. Contrary to popular belief, asbestos has never been banned in the United States.”
