KEY POINTS:
MPs have promised they will act on a petition calling for a breast cancer strategy focused on prevention.
The Breast Cancer Network presented its 10,700-strong petition to Parliament yesterday.
Spokeswoman Gillian Woods said more than 2300 women a year contracted the disease in New Zealand.
Maori women fared much worse than others as more of them got breast cancer and a larger proportion of them died, she said.
New Zealand's incidence rate of breast cancer rose 34 per cent from 1980 to 2002 and cancer projections from the Ministry of Health indicate it will continue to rise.
Breast cancer remains a killer disease for more than 600 women every year despite early diagnosis, new surgical techniques, anti-oestrogenic drugs, new chemotherapeutic agents and a falling mortality rate.
The petition asks the Government for a breast cancer strategy focused on reversing the rising incidence of the disease in New Zealand.
It also asks the Government to acknowledge synthetic chemicals in the environment have a role in the development of breast cancer and asks that New Zealand women be tested to establish the level of residues in their bodies.
It also asks that a precautionary approach be adopted with all chemicals where there is evidence of a link with breast cancer.
Green MP Sue Kedgley, who received the petition, promised that the health select committee she chairs will look at the issue seriously.
"We spend more than $40 million a year treating breast cancer but almost nothing on strategies to prevent women from developing breast cancer in the first place."
MPs from National, Labour, United Future and New Zealand First said they agreed prevention was better than cure and promised the petition would be properly considered.
Ms Kedgley said it was time to end the "official silence" about the link between synthetic oestrogenic chemicals and breast cancer and reduce women's exposure to them. "There are literally hundreds of synthetic chemicals linked to breast cancer in everyday use in New Zealand yet the Government is doing nothing to identify or reduce women's exposure to them."
- NZPA
