Dr. Charles Wright, told the Globe and Mail reporter Paul Taylor (Nov 14, 1992). "What we are going to see here is a massive attempt to discredit this study. And the attack is going to come from the huge multi-billion industry that has developed around screening, which includes the manufacturers, the radiologists, and the technicians."

The Advantages Of Routine Mammography

1. It may detect small breast cancers before they can be felt and before they have spread to the lymph glands. The outlook for breast cancer is better if the cancer has not spread to the lymph glands.

2. It may reduce the death rate from breast cancer by 20 to 40 percent in women over 50 years old.

The Disadvantages Of Mammograms

• RADIATION: Most experts believe that the risk from radiation induced breast cancer is very small and nothing to worry about. Estimates of the amount of radiation-induced cancers range from one to 42 per million women screened.

Of much greater concern is the fact that radiation exposure varies from one place to another and there is no real regulation of radiation levels. A U.S. government study showed that the amount of radiation exposure could vary as much as 100 times from one facility to another.

In the U.S., mammograms are being done much more frequently than in Canada, and mammograms are a big money maker for some radiologists. The American Geriatric Society is concerned that, "If a woman had her first mammogram at the age of 35 and follow-up annual studies after the age of 50 and she would live to 100, she would have undergone over sixty mammograms... the cumulative effects of 30, 40 or 50 mammograms are essentially unknown. Furthermore, the number of facilities that perform mammograms with outdated high dose radiation equipment is unknown."

As an individual, you should be aware that your radiation risk is equal to the additive effect of all the X-rays you have ever had, and heed the following advice of The National Cancer Institute (NCI).

In 1980, The National Cancer Institute of Canada Support and Advocacy Division made the following recommendations to the Toronto Board of Health concerning the radiation risk for women participating in The Canadian National Breast Screening Study:

"While we conclude that the level of radiation to be used in the study offers small risk, we are concerned at the incalculable nature of the risk from the addition of other sources of radiation, especially chest or dental X-rays. We note that, according to OHIP records, in Ontario, in the last year 1.7 million chest X-rays were given or one for every five persons in the province.

The Board, therefore, should recommend that previous X-ray history be discussed with all potential participants before they join the study. Then, those women with high X-ray exposure should be informed explicitly that the risk to them is entirely unknown if they participate in the study... Specifically each woman should be told: (A) The possible risk to her is small. (B) The possible benefit to her is small. (C) There is a completely unknown risk from accumulated radiation from different sources."

Dr. Rosalie Bertell, author of NO IMMEDIATE DANGER (Women's Press, Toronto, 1985) and Director of the International Institute of Concern for Public Health, believes the radiation risk from mammograms has been underestimated (see her comments below on the Ontario screening program).

• FALSE POSITIVES AND UNNECESSARY SURGERY: A false positive means that something shows up in your mammogram that suggests cancer, but when a breast biopsy is done, no evidence of cancer is found. False positives can occur in up to ten percent or more of mammograms.

In the National Breast Cancer Screening Study in Canada, at the beginning of the study, there were ten false positives showing up on mammograms for every true positive proven by biopsy. Later, in the study, the ratio dropped to five false positives to every true positive.