Chemotherapy causes cancer!

New Discovery:
Chemotherapy Causes Cancer

    You probably don't need much convincing about the dangers of cancer drug therapies…

    ...but a new study suggests that chemotherapy treatments may unintentionally CAUSE cancer cell growth!

    How can this be? Keep reading and I'll explain. . .

Continued below. . .

How Carolyn Reversed Her Alzheimer's by Disobeying Her Doctor     An all-natural protein melts away the brain-clogging mineral that triggers memory loss, dementia and Alzheimer's — and cuts brain cell death in half! And yet this Nobel Prize-winning discovery is being ignored by 99% of doctors.     That's why I'd like to tell you about Carolyn.     Click here to see how she reversed her Alzheimer's without drugs — and in just a few weeks!     If you or someone you care about is suffering from memory loss, dementia or Alzheimer's, then you know how cruel these diseases can be. The emotional and physical toll they take on the patient — as well as on the entire family — can be devastating.     That's why the news of the breakthroughs I'm about to reveal could literally have a life-changing effect on you.     Best of all, these solutions are available and being used successfully right now — even while most doctors still throw up their hands when it comes to memory loss, dementia and Alzheimer's, using words like "hopeless" and "irreversible." It's hard to believe, I know. . .     So please click here to see how Carolyn reversed her Alzheimer's with this remarkable discovery!

    A research team led by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center was surprised to find that chemotherapy drugs can make healthy cells go rogue and turn into something called fibroblasts.

    Fibroblasts are cells that help strengthen connective tissue, help wounds to heal and assist in collagen production. But according to study results published in Nature Medicine, the scientists noticed something strange in healthy fibroblasts located close to cancer cells targeted by chemotherapy treatments.

    The research team found that chemotherapy drugs caused these normal cells to pump out more of a protein called WNT16B.

    Problem is…the excess WNT16B caused nearby cancer cells to GROW and invade surrounding tissues.

    This could help explain why secondary cancer sometimes resurfaces months or even years after chemotherapy treatments. And that's not all...

    The researchers noticed that high levels of this protein also caused these cancer cells to become resistant to the chemotherapy drugs!

    Surely the last thing Big Pharma wants to know is that its chemo drugs can actually grow mutant cancer cells that are immune to chemo!

    But there seems to be little chance conventional medicine will suspend the use of these drugs. The researchers suggested adding another drug to the chemo treatments—that is, one to suppress the excess WNT16B protein.

    So in this case, mainstream medicine holds true to form in its search for additional ways to market synthetic poisons.

    The best thing to do is take preventive measures against the disease. One new study suggests a first step may be to alter your diet…

The food/cancer connection

    You probably know all too well that many foods are laced with chemicals and other substances that are known carcinogens.

    So you won't be surprised to learn a recent study from Great Britain determined thatfood is a controllable risk factor that likely accounts for 35 to 45 percent of all cancer cases!

    The study, published online July 23 in the journal Gut, specifically examined how antioxidants affected pancreatic cancer risk.

    Dr. Andrew Hart of the University of East Anglia led the research team that tracked the long-term health of more than 23,000 study participants. They ranged in age from 40 to 74 and had their dietary activity tracked between 1993 and 1997.

    Each person kept a food diary tracking the kind of food, amount and preparation method for every food eaten during a seven day period.

    After 10 years, 49 participants had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The number increased to 86 by 2010.

    The researchers determined that people whose diets had higher intakes of selenium and vitamins C and E were 67 percent less likely to develop pancreatic cancer!

    In spite of the impressive results, the researchers were cautious about stating that these findings establish a "cause and effect" relationship. The team said these findings merely suggest that a diet featuring plenty of antioxidant rich foods reduces the risk of pancreatic cancer.

    If this is so, you're probably wondering…

What to eat—and what NOT to eat!

    If foods can impact your risk of disease, it's probably a good idea to review some of the best and worst choices you can make. Let's start with some nutrient-rich food choices…

    Research shows selenium, combined with vitamin C, vitamin E and beta-carotene, helps block chemical reactions that create free radicals. These molecules cause cell damage that can lead to cancer.

    If you're interested in bulking up on selenium-rich foods, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) says some of your best choices include:

• Brazil nuts
• Eggs
• Fish (tuna, halibut, sardines, flounder, salmon)
• Grains (wheat germ, barley, brown rice, oats)
• Meat and poultry
• Mushrooms (button, crimini, shiitake)
• Shellfish (oysters, mussels, shrimp, clams, scallops)
• Sunflower seeds

    Please note that total selenium intake from all sources should be no more than 200 mcg. per day. Selenium is a good thing, but there's such a thing as too much of it. Brazil nuts are especially rich in selenium, they taste great, and all you need is two or three each day to give yourself a therapeutic dose.

    As for foods rich in vitamin C and beta carotene, you should stock up on plenty of brightly colored fruits and vegetables like carrots, cantaloupe… citrus fruits... pineapple, broccoli… and red, orange and green peppers.

    Some of these same foods as well as your leafy greens are also rich sources of vitamin E.

    As for the less healthy options, you probably already know to limit or eliminate foods like these. . .

• Fried and processed foods—frying food in oils causes an unhealthy chemical change. Investigators from the University of the Basque in Spain discovered that compounds released from cooking oils significantly increase the risk of various cancers and brain damage.
• Grilled meats—a report in the June 2007 Harvard Health Letter states that cooking meat at high temperatures causes a reaction that forms cancer causing heterocyclic amines.
• Recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) —this U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved synthetic hormone helps increase a cow's milk production. But the American Cancer Society says milk from rBGH-treated cows has higher levels of a hormone called IGF-1that may cause tumor growth in your prostate, breasts and colon. If a conservative, mainstream outfit like the ACS warns against it, you KNOW there's a problem.
• Refined sugar—a study published in the February 2004 Journal of the National Cancer Institute highlights a strong association between a high sugar diet and women's colorectal cancer risk.

    Your ultimate goal should be to reduce exposure to substances that destroy your immunity—and bulk up on those that help build a natural cancer shield.

---

Resources:

American Cancer Society. 2011. Recombinant bovine growth hormone fact sheet. Retrieved from
http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/othercarcinogens/athome/recombinant-bovine-growth-hormone

Condliffe, J. 2012. Chemotherapy can make cancer growth worse. Gizmodo. Available at
http://gizmodo.com/5932080/chemotherapy-can-sometimes-boost-cancer-growth

Harvard Health Letter. 2007. Tips for safer and healthier grilling, from the Harvard Health Letter. Available at
http://www.health.harvard.edu/press_releases/cancer-risk-from-bbq-meat

National Institutes of Health. 2012. Dietary Supplment Fact Sheet: Selenium. Available at
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Selenium-HealthProfessional/

Preidt, R. 2012. Antioxidants may help cut cancer risk, study suggests. Health Day. Available at
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_127519.html

Rarbark, S. 2012. Study suggests diet and cancer have a connection. Miami Herald. Available at
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/07/2936012/study-suggests-diet-and-cancer.html

ASHLEY COOK NANED AS NEW BOWIE STATE SOFTBALL COACH

FORMER LADY BULLDOGS PLAYER ASHLEY COOK RETURNS AS HEAD COACH

BOWIE, Md. – Bowie State University Athletic Director Anton Goff announces the hiring of Ashley Cook as the new head coach of the Lady Bulldogs softball program.  “We’re very excited to have Ashley (Cook) added to our staff. She comes highly recommended and had great success, not only here as a former student-athlete, but also in high school as well as the AAU circuit”, said Goff.

Cook is a 2011 graduate of Bowie State after earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Fine Arts and currently works full-time at Calvert Memorial Hospital as the E-Marketing Specialist.

Cook played two seasons with the Lady Bulldogs (2007 and 2009) and helped guide Bowie State to two CIAA Championships during her time wearing the black and gold. Cook averaged .342 at the plate in her first season and .443 her final collegiate season.

“I'm very excited to be coming back to the Bulldogs program as Head Softball coach”, said Cook. “I would like to build upon the tradition that has been established and continue the program's success. I'm looking forward to getting out on the diamond and meeting the team to plan for the upcoming season.”

Belmont Abbey 3 - Bowie State 0 (WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL FINAL)

BELMONT ABBEY DEFEATS BOWIE STATE VOLLEYBALL IN THREE-SET SWEEP

WASHINGTON, DC – Belmont Abbey College swept Bowie State University in three straight sets in the season opener for both teams, defeating the Lady Bulldogs 25-10, 25-8 and 25-11.

A very young Bowie State team was held to a minus .236 attack percentage and managed only five kills on 55 total attacks. On the other side of the net, the Crusaders wrapped up the match with .483 hitting percentage and knocked down 37 kills.

Bowie State sophomores Remi Anderson and Paige McIntosh accounted for two kills each. Fellow sophomore Briana Flowers and freshman Yaje Ngundam recorded one kill each in the setback. Junior Kasi Eisenzimmer paced the Lady Bulldogs with four assists and three service aces, both team highs. Redshirt freshman Marissa Martinez picked up a team-high five digs.

Caitlin Hankins led Belmont Abbey with a match-high nine kills and Hannah Schellenberg added seven kills in the Crusaders victory. Kay Schellenberg accounted for 28 assists to go along with two service aces and three digs.

This causes three-fourths of all breast cancer

Radiation causes three-fourths of breast cancers — and damages your heart, too!

    A top doctor estimates that about three-quarters of all breast cancer cases in the United States are induced by radiation — including medical X-rays, and including mammograms to detect breast cancer.

    Dr. John W. Goffman, M.D., Ph.D. published that finding in a 1996 book calledPreventing Breast-Cancer: The Story of a Major, Proven, Preventable Cause of this Disease. He was a retired Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley.

    While the medical profession doesn’t generally accept his exact figure of three-fourths, it’s a medical fact that X-rays cause cancer. This is very well known and accepted. It’s not controversial. Those painless, invisible rays that doctors aim at your chest or a broken bone or an arthritic joint are extremely dangerous. The reason is that X-rays cause healthy cells to mutate, and mutated cells are a well-known cause of cancer.

Continued below...

Breast Cancer Breakthrough BANNED! U.S. Government Blocks Release of Doctor's Life-Saving Book     A mammoth discovery is wiping out most breast tumors better than anything seen yet in modern medicine. It makes surgery, radiation and chemotherapy look like something from the Dark Ages.     A Cornell-educated doctor followed more than 25 years of case studies and PROVED this treatment can cure breast cancer. With the discovery I'm going to tell you about, almost every woman makes it and without losing a breast to surgery or taking any toxic chemicals. Even those with late stage cancer!     You've got to include this treatment if you want to have any REAL hope of defeating breast cancer. Click here now and watch a new video presentation about this important discovery…

    In spite of that, we’re seeing a big, bitter debate over whether women between the ages of 40 and 50 should receive an annual mammogram. In 2009, a task force at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services set off a firestorm by recommending that regular mammography screening shouldn’t start until age 50. This led some people to think the government is out to kill women by denying them mammograms.

    Cheer up. This is one occasion where the government got it right.

    I think the test is of doubtful value for women of any age, but now even establishment medicine agrees that it’s a costly, nearly useless exam for most women under 50. The reasons are complicated, but basically the test detects very few tumors and saves very few lives, and meanwhile it exposes women to massive amounts of dangerous radiation.

    According to Robert Aronowitz, M.D., of the University of Pennsylvania, "You need to screen 1,900 women in their 40s for 10 years in order to prevent one death from breast cancer, and in the process you will have generated more than 1000 false positives and all the overtreatment they entail."

    In other words, the test is incredibly inaccurate. A false positive means the test indicates you have cancer when in fact you don’t. It means return visits to the doctor, additional tests, biopsies, missed time at work, and several days of terror during which you think you’ve got cancer. After the age of 50 (or after menopause) the test is somewhat more useful, but nothing to brag about.

    And let me underline this: women under 50 endure a thousand false positives for every life saved by a "true positive" — a mammogram test where the woman indeed has cancer and is treated successfully.

    Meanwhile, 10 years of screening exposes you to about half the radiation you would have received had you been standing a mile away from the center of the atomic bomb that destroyed the whole city of Hiroshima. In other words, you’re bombarded with one heck of a lot of deadly, cancer-causing radiation. If it weren’t a medical test they’d call it murder.

    My friend Bill Henderson recommends a test you can do by mail, from your home, that he says is more accurate and useful. You can get the details in a Special Report we publish called How to Cure Almost Any Cancer at Home for $5.15 a Day. (Click on that link to learn more about the report.) The test doesn’t specifically reveal which body part has cancer cells, but it lets you know you’ve got cancer somewhere — and you can proceed to get rid of it with the inexpensive home treatments Bill recommends.

    It really is an amazing home system for defeating cancer. I’ve known Bill for years and he’s a man of high integrity. He’s not in this for the money. He wants to help people. You owe it to yourself to learn about his approach.

    Even better is a breast cancer screening test called thermography, that I explain in detail in my book Breast Cancer Cover-Up. Thermography is completely safe, involves NO RADIATION, and detects breast cancer as much as ten years earlier than a mammogram! Breast Cancer Cover-Up goes over all your testing and treatment options for this dreaded type of cancer. If I do say so myself, it's a must read for every woman who has breast cancer or wants to be prepared just in case.

    Meanwhile, I could go on at great length about mammograms (and I will in a future issue). But for now what I find depressing about this debate is that so many poorly informed consumers demand MORE of the very treatments that are killing them.

    The problem is not just mammograms or breast cancer. ALL X-rays of any kind increase your risk of cancer no matter what part of the body is exposed. Why do you think the technician leaves the room while the picture is being taken? The procedure is deadly. And generally we Americans get X-rayed far more than necessary.

    In the past couple of decades the medical and dental professions have made an effort to reduce the number of X-rays and the dose of radiation per X-ray. You should do your part by avoiding them when you can.

    Most readers of this newsletter know that radiation is used not only to detect problems like tumors and fractures but also to treat cancer. High doses of radiation damage and kill existing cancer cells, but as I just said, they can also cause surrounding healthy cells to mutate. It’s very likely that radiation treatment actually increases your risk of more cancer sometime in the future — either a return of the original type of cancer or the birth of a new type you didn’t have before.

    The American Cancer Society — a strong supporter of conventional treatments -- provides some evidence for this on its website. The ACS explains that radiation therapy has the potential to cause DNA mutations that could lead to the development of cancer. It explains that some studies have associated radiation therapy with increased cases of thyroid cancer and early-onset breast cancer.

    The ACS also notes that patients with Hodgkin disease who receive radiation therapy are at an increased risk because the treatment "often delivers lower radiation doses to many areas of the body."

    In the opinion of the ACS, radiation’s benefits generally outweigh the risk, but they admit additional research is needed to maximize the benefits while minimizing the risk of secondary cancers.

Radiation even damages your heart!

    Besides the cancer dangers, published studies confirm a link between radiation therapy for cancer and damage to the heart. Dr. Gofman saw this years ago. He wrote, "Medical radiation, received even at very low doses, is an important cause of death from Ischemic Heart Disease; the probable mechanism is radiation-induction of mutations in the coronary arteries, resulting in dysfunctional clones (mini-tumors) of smooth muscle cells."

    Dr. Gofman was speculating, but a 2007 study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute suggests he was on the right track. The study found that radiation therapy poses a long-term heart disease risk for breast cancer survivors.

    The researchers compared breast cancer treatment options for 4,414 ten-year survivors of breast cancer and found that 21 percent of the group had some form of cardiovascular disease, with heart failure being the most common.

    In general, those patients who were treated with radiation therapy between 1970 and 1986 had about two to three times the risk of heart disease. Although doctors employ radiation more carefully now, it’s a cancer treatment to avoid if you can.

    I’ll give you my take on radiation, as well as most forms of chemotherapy (and keep in mind that I’m not a doctor). Cancer is a systemic disease. The whole body is sick. So merely destroying a tumor or killing cancer cells does little more than buy you time. In all too many cases, the cancer comes back.

    That’s why in this newsletter and in the reports we publish we’re always talking about sound nutrition, detoxifying the body and strengthening the immune system. In the seven years we’ve been publishing cancer information, every bit of evidence we’ve seen indicates this approach is at least as effective as the conventional treatments — and makes you a lot less miserable.

Bowie State University Football: Vs Assumption Box Score and Scoring Summary.

Listen to the Audio Archive from US Sports Radio and BSU TV BOWIE STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL 2012
Assumption vs Bowie State (Sep 1, 2012 at Bowie, MD)

Assumption (0-1) vs. Bowie State (1-0)

Date: Sep 1, 2012  • Site: Bowie, MD  • Stadium: Bulldogs  •  Attendance: 1064

Score by Quarters	1	2	3	4	Score
Assumption	14	0	0	6	20
Bowie State	0	7	7	10	24

SCORING SUMMARY				ASM -BSU
1st	11:57	ASM	Sean Daigle 17 yd pass from Bobby Jordan (Tad Beuchert kick)
			1 play, 17 yards, TOP 0:06	7 - 0
	04:11	ASM	Nick Bolio 1 yd run (Tad Beuchert kick)
			11 plays, 64 yards, TOP 6:00	14 - 0
2nd	01:59	BSU	McINTYRE,Reginald 22 yd pass from JOHNSTON,Jared (DIAZ-AVILES,Mario kick)
			8 plays, 0 yards, TOP 3:14	14 - 7
3rd	10:39	BSU	McNEIL,Douglas 1 yd pass from JOHNSTON,Jared (DIAZ-AVILES,Mario kick)
			9 plays, 60 yards, TOP 4:13	14 - 14
4th	01:54	BSU	DIAZ-AVILES,Mario 37 yd field goal
			12 plays, 65 yards, TOP 5:14	14 - 17
	00:33	ASM	Scott Simonson 31 yd pass from Bobby Jordan (Tad Beuchert kick failed)
			4 plays, 75 yards, TOP 1:12	20 - 17
	00:05	BSU	McNEIL,Douglas 16 yd pass from JOHNSTON,Jared (DIAZ-AVILES,Mario kick)
			4 plays, 65 yards, TOP 0:24	20 - 24

Kickoff time: 1:00 pm  • End of Game: 4:04 pm  • Total elapsed time: 3:04 Referee: Sam Warren  •  Umpire: Keith Anders  •  Linesman: Tim Price  •  Line judge: Quentin Terry  •  Back judge: Bashan Hameed  •  Field judge: Frank Trevino  •  Side judge: Otis Moore  •  Scorer: Tasha Reeves  •  Temperature: 88  • Wind: NW 8 mph • Weather: Partly Cloudy * * * SEASON OPENER FOR BOTH TEAMS * * * Next Assumption Game: 9/7 vs. Saint Anselm - 7 pm Next Bowie State Game: 9/6 at Benedict* - 8 pm *CBS Sports Network Game of the Week

US Sports Conditioning Online Boot Camp Demo

Welcome to another US Sports Online Conditioning Boot Camp! If this is your first time using the US Sports Conditioning Boot Camp, then please go at your own pace. You may lower the volume, to allow your body to become conditioned to these more challenging workouts. In other words: "Challenge by choice"

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This is a free Demo of the US Sports Conditioning Online Boot Camp Workouts:

Once or Twice-Weekly detailed sports conditioning workouts delivered to your inbox. Comprehensive Strength and Conditioning workouts with specific exercises, sets, reps, and weights. Videos and descriptions to help you execute each exercise with proper intensity and good form. Each training cycle will be periodically changed for maximal performance enhancement.

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Here it is Athletes! Your Free Demo* of our bi-weekly online Sports Conditioning Bootcamps.

Be sure to stay hydrated before, during, and after your workouts.

This program is generally geared towards the Winter Sports Athlete (Basketball, Wrestling, etc.,). We are going to stay with this multifaceted strength and conditioning workout until the first of December. This workout was originally designed as a Basketball  Conditioning program. This can be applied to conditioning for just about any sport*

The weights and intensities listed were originally programmed for a specific athlete. Adjust the weights as you see fit and have SAFETY FIRST in mind.

Equipment needed: Power Gym, Machines,

Week 1 - Day 1 (Friday) of US Sports Conditioning Boot Camp's Demo Program	Week Difficulty:Medium
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Select		Exercise Name	Set and Rep Combinations
	1	Warmup and Stretch	8 minutes
	2	Video Theraband Internal\External Warmup Rotation (AD)	12 reps, 8 reps, 8 reps
	3	Video Snatch Deadlift	5 reps @ 115 lbs, 4 reps @ 135 lbs, 3 reps @ 160 lbs, 5 reps @ 170 lbs, 2 reps @ 160 lbs
	4	Video Bench Press	10 reps @ 225 lbs, 5 reps @ 270 lbs, 8 reps @ 315 lbs, 10 reps @ 295 lbs, 10 reps @ 270 lbs
	5	Video Dumbbell Bench Press	12 reps @ 105 lbs, 8 reps @ 120 lbs, 8 reps @ 110 lbs
	6	Video Med Ball Chest Pass (standing)	6 reps, 4 reps
	7	Video Med Ball Overhead Throw (standing)	6 reps, 4 reps
	8	Video Dumbbell Fly Stretch	60 seconds
	9	Video Dumbbell Lateral Raise	10 reps @ 41 lbs, 10 reps @ 41 lbs
	10	Video Dumbbell Rear Lateral Raise	10 reps @ 32 lbs, 10 reps @ 32 lbs
	11	Video Dumbbell Side-Lying External Rotation	10 reps @ 26 lbs, 10 reps @ 26 lbs
	12	Video Cable Triceps Pushdown	10 reps @ 170 lbs, 10 reps @ 170 lbs
	13	Video Hanging Bent Knee Leg Raises	15 reps, 15 reps
	14	Video Alternate Heel Touchers	48 reps, 48 reps
	15	Video Med Ball Side Throw (standing)	12 reps, 8 reps, 8 reps

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"If I could pick only one treatment to cure cancer, this would be it..."

Is Your Office Giving You Cancer?

    The typical office environment in corporate America is furnished with items made to resist wear and tear and to be more stain-proof than the textiles we use in our homes. This is all accomplished with chemicals. No, they aren't good for you. But how bad are they? Let's take a look...

Continued below. . .

The Hushed-up Truth About DMSO     For the first time, we're exposing the hushed-up truth about a secret, fast-acting compound that could completely redefine pain relief as we know it.     For the next 24 hours only, a shocking underground video is being made available to you.     (Although not offensive, it contains adult-oriented material and we suggest viewers be at least 21 years of age.)     Its uses are practically endless!     More importantly--what is it? And how can you get your hands on it?     You'll get all the answers and learn about a special offer here. And for 24 hours only, it's free to you. So, for your health, watch it here now.

    The furniture and carpets are coated with stain repellents and other synthetic materials. Except for maybe the boss's office, the furniture is made of cheap composite materials, not real wood. The walls are doused with paints that give off toxic gases — and the whole airborne nightmare is sealed in with windows that don't open and thick insulation to make the building energy-efficient.

    Some call the whole thing a miracle of modern chemistry and industrial design. But the "miracle" secretes enough toxins in the form of PFCs to make you sick with a host of illnesses — cancer being one of them.

    PFCs are polyfluorinated compounds. One of the scariest things about them is that they last a long time, and they accumulate in the body rather than being flushed out. They never go away.

    And they're found throughout the man-made environment. Dr. Olga Naidenko, a senior scientist at the Environmental Working Group, said it best: "This class of chemicals, they are all over the place."

    We already know somewhere between 95 percent and 99 percent of people in the U.S. have traces of PFCs in their blood. I touched on this a few weeks ago in my Teflon update (Issue #211).

    PFOA, the contaminant in Teflon, is only one of the many terminal breakdown compounds of household products containing PFCs. It's also just one of the 15 PFCs known to pollute human blood.

How your office links with your blood

    Curiosity about this health pollutant prompted a recent study, published in Environmental Science & Technology. Lead researcher Michael McClean, associate professor of environmental health at the Boston University School of Public Health, along with his colleagues, looked at the prevalence of PFCs in office environments.

    The team sampled 31 offices in Boston over the course of four days. The offices were located in two separate buildings — one that was fairly new, and another building that was older but had new carpeting. The researchers tested for a variety of PFCs, including fluorotelomer alcohols (FTOHs), sulfonamides (FOSAs), and sulfonamidoethanols (FOSEs).

    Following that, they sampled the blood of each of the 31 workers from those offices, looking for any of 12 PFCs. They restricted the study to workers who had to spend at least 18 hours a week in their offices.

    The results give me chills. For one, FTOHs were particularly high in air samples — and three to five times higher than those found in most homes. In the office workers' blood levels, PFOA, which is a breakdown product of FTOHs, correlated with office air levels of FTOHs.

    The researchers found that the range of PFC levels varies quite a bit from one building to another. Meaning, the corresponding blood levels of PFCs depend on the building where the person works. The newer building was by far a greater source of toxins, with its new paint, furniture, and carpet.

    No surprise, those who work in older buildings without the chemically-coated new furniture and carpet have the lowest levels of PFCs.

Damage from PFCs is appalling

    Every month, it seems like some new illness gets linked with PFC exposure.

    Some of the research points to low birth weight and high cholesterol. Other studies suggest that vaccines for kids are less effective due to PFC exposure. Animal studies show PFCs weaken the immune system. And other health effects, besides cancer, include developmental and reproductive toxicity.

    According to the Environmental Working Group, "PFCs seem destined to supplant DDT, PCBs, dioxin, and other chemicals as the most notorious global chemical contaminants ever produced."

    This puts you in a tough spot if you — like most of us — want to keep your job, whether it's because you love it or need it.

    But there are some things you can do to lessen your exposure.

A few things you can do to stay healthy

    For one thing, officials need to acknowledge that office air is a significant source of exposure for disease-creating chemicals. Indoor air is two to five times more polluted than outdoor air (in some cases, 100 times more polluted).

    If you have any pull in deciding how to outfit your office, consult a resource like theGreenGuard Environmental Institute. They provide indoor air quality certification for certain products, and they're not affiliated with any of the manufacturers they certify.

    Another good source is CenterPoint Energy's Indoor Air Quality quiz. Take it to find out if your facility has "sick building syndrome." And then read their tips on what to do about it.

    Other tips for creating a healthy indoor space are:

• Use only non-toxic paint.
• Make sure there's adequate air ventilation to prevent mold growth and allow escape for airborne toxins. Most ventilation systems bring in very little outdoor air and simply re-circulate indoor air, which further reduces quality.
• Make windows accessible. Too many office buildings have their windows sealed shut.
• Use furnishings that are low in VOCs (VOCs are volatile organic compounds, meaning they escape into the air as gases).
• Consider eco-flooring materials, like cork. It's especially important to stay away from carpeting with stain repellents, because the PFCs that come with them stick around for a long time.
• Require cleaning crews to use non-toxic, natural cleaning supplies, like vinegar and baking soda
• Don't import, if you can help it. Otherwise you risk bringing in products with the same compounds you're trying to avoid. PFC levels in China are going up, for instance.
• Ask to telecommute from your home a few days a week … or all the time.

    Most importantly, read up on this stuff. You can bet big-money companies like DuPont aren't going to write "Caution: May cause cancer" on their flooring labels.

    In fact, in an email reply to health inquiries by WebMD, DuPont spokeswoman Janet Smith said, "The term 'PFCs' is rather a broad umbrella, grouping together chemicals that have different properties and applications, and different toxicity and environmental profiles. These chemicals should be considered individually when discussing questions about health and safety."

    Funny. That's exactly what McClean did in his Boston office-space study.

Don't wait around for the government to take action

    It's a sign of the times that more research these days focuses on the health hazards of chemicals. More chemicals flood our world than ever, and more people are getting sick.

    Some of the PFC class of chemicals are being phased out, like those found in Scotchgard stain and water repellent. Those were forced off the market by the EPA in 2000, and PFOA is on its way out (we hope, anyway, assuming DuPont cooperates).

    But the federal government has been far too slow to acknowledge the hazards of PFCs. They usually just respond with a call for more research, or for voluntary agreements with manufacturers. Given the persistence of these chemicals in our environment, our chance to reverse their impact may be slipping away — at least, if you're waiting for science to do something about it.

    Don't bank on regulation any time soon. Take responsibility and do what you can to make sure your daily environment isn't slowly poisoning you.