Following a previous post, in which I profiled Dr. David Servan-Schreiber’s battle with cancer, as chronicled in Ode Magazine, I wanted to continue a discussion that contradicts Dr. Servan-Schreiber’s assertion that the reason cancer prevention is not talked about is because, “There is no money to be made in cancer prevention.”
I would argue that there is more money to be made in cancer prevention than in cancer treatment, because as my crotchety Republican Uncle frequently laments, “Everything causes cancer.”
The main parties benefitting from traditional cancer treatment are drug companies and a small slice of health care specialists. This treatment, however, is an enormous burden placed on safety nets of all kinds: families, the government, corporate health insurance, emergency rooms, etc. The taxpayer pays. The families pay. And yes, you pay, because your health insurance premiums go up precipitously as our populace gets sicker.
It is also hard to argue with my Uncle. Not only because he’s stubborn and doesn’t believe in evolution, global warming, or logic, but because in this case, he makes a point that much of the public must frustratedly believe. Sun causes cancer. Smoking causes cancer. Radiation causes cancer. Drugs can cause cancer. Hormones can cause cancer. By the time we get to the things that are much easier to control, like meat, saturated fats, agrochemicals, and stress, he’s just plum tired of it all. Taken one by one, these choices are easy to, just for example, cut out meat 4 days per week if it decreases your risk of cancer by 50%. However, when you’ve already spent a couple of sleepless nights worrying about all the other things you see on the news, it is just overload, and I can see how people can give up.
That is where ecopreneurs come in. If there are jobs where you can help people live a healthier life and hopefully prevent cancer, you become something more than just the noise of the evening news, the newspaper, and the shop-talk at the local Machinists’ Union Hall. You become an expert because it is your business to be an expert. You become an advocate for prevention. And you become an ecopreneur when that job overlaps with doing good for the world at large, which often has the benefit of preventing cancer on a much larger scale.
Stay tuned….
Scott Cooney is author of Build a Green Small Business: Profitable Ways to Become an Ecopreneur (McGraw-Hill)
Join “Ecopreneur’s Guide” on Facebook!
About Scott Cooney
