Cancer and the environment
Thursday, April 3, 2008
By: Rich Pagen

On a calm fall morning,

I paddled up to the canoe landing on Poplar Lake in northern Minnesota, 12 days after leaving a similar landing on Ojibway Lake far to the west.  I had just traveled 83 miles across the 1.1-million-acre Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, through 43 different lakes and rivers, and along 48 portages. Its wildlife and peacefulness have captivated me since I first pushed off into its waters 17 years ago.  And my experiences there have certainly influenced the direction that my career as a conservation biologist and educator has taken.   For a long time I had wanted to do a one-way trip across the Boundary Waters as a celebration of wild places and intact ecosystems.  However, based on the way that this past year played out, I decided to make the trip about more than just that.

The calendar in Microsoft Outlook sends reminders when an event on the calendar is approaching.  Last summer, it sent me a reminder that said, “Due in 13 hours, Visit Ben.”   I had just finished working a research cruise in the Gulf of Maine and, when I put the note in the calendar some time ago, I had thought that this would be a good time to take a side trip to upstate New York to visit Ben Tassinari, a friend who had been struggling with stomach cancer for 10 months.  But instead, in late April, Ben passed away at the age of 30, and I found myself at his funeral.  The word never made it to my calendar in Microsoft Outlook.

After Ben’s funeral, I stayed with my brother, sister-in-law and two-year-old niece, Cassidy, before flying home to Minneapolis.  Two weeks later, Cassidy was diagnosed with leukemia.  She began what will be an over-two-year-long chemotherapy treatment, nearly died from an intestinal infection, and is now (nearly a year later) in remission and fine tuning her skills at drawing and hide n’ seek.

I don’t live in a bubble.  I know that these stories of cancer are not unique to me. They are happening all the time, to all sorts of people .  I also know that they are occurring more and more frequently.  It is because of this that I decided to use this canoe trip as means to raise awareness and money to help address the causes of cancer. 

According to the National Cancer Institute, approximately two-thirds of all cancers are caused by things in the environment or the world around us.  Research on improving cancer treatment is essential; however, the amount of time and money spent on addressing environmental causes and prevention currently pales in comparison. 
During this fundraiser, a total of 93 individuals, couples and families contributed $8,435 to the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute.

Wilderness areas like the Boundary Waters are special places for countless reasons.  They will become even more important in the years to come, both as refuges for wildlife and for the human spirit.  But they will also serve as benchmarks to help understand the changes that we humans have made to the world we live in, and the effects that these changes have upon us and our health.

* For more information about Rich Pagen’s cancer canoe fundraiser, visit: http://www.richpagen.com/cancer.htm

* For more information about the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, visit: http://www.environmentaloncology.org/