Shaaron Green Peace had to fight with her doctors at Kaiser for six to seven months to give her a biopsy after a mammogram revealed a cyst. Peace said they refused to look at the cyst, telling her not to worry because it was normal for women with large breasts to have cysts. Peace wears a 48-double-D bra size.They finally relented to give Peace a biopsy because she kept insisting, and they discovered she had breast cancer.
"I was very mad at Kaiser. I felt they were racist. If I was a different nationality it would've been taken seriously. If I wasn't persistent, I might not be here today. I think the minute you say Hunters Point, you should be checked," Peace said.
Peace, 50, lived in the Bayview-Hunters Point since 1998, and was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000. Peace lives directly above the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, an EPA designated superfund site, and also worked as a bus driver for San Francisco MUNI before contracting breast cancer. She believes that a fire at the shipyard that burned for months without anyone warning the residents, and exposure to diesel fumes while working as a bus driver contributed to her cancer.
Although there are incidents of cancer in her family, Peace is the first family member, on both sides of her family, to have breast cancer. As if having cancer wasn't bad enough, Peace said she lost her left breast not to cancer but to an infection because the doctors did her biopsy incorrectly and her breast never healed.
"I didn't lose my breast to no cancer--I lost it to an infection. I thought that it was horrible, and 10 to 15 lawyers wouldn't take my case. They said it would be a long, drawn out process and they didn't want to deal with it," Peace said.
Some activists in the neighborhood are working on new environmental legislation that they believe could help the community, and prevent cases like Peace's. The major emphasis in this legislation is to recognize potential health hazards rather than rely on proof that these hazards cause harm. Called the Precautionary Principle, this new approach to policy-making decisions about environmental factors affecting health could change how women in toxic neighborhoods are treated.
In addition, the Precautionary Principle puts the burden of proof with regard to chemicals on the manufacturers rather than on the public to show that their products are safe.Finally, the Precautionary Principle rests on the democratic principle that government officials are obligated to serve the public's interests in human health and environmental protection.
A coalition of different organizations in San Francisco formed the Bay Area Working Group on the Precautionary Principle, who is working to get this legislation passed. The coalition includes The Breast Cancer Fund, Breast Cancer Action, Commonweal, The Urban Habitat Program, Clean Water Action, and The Center for Environmental Health, The Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates, Redefining Progress, Urban Ecology, and The Women's Cancer Resource Center.
According to Celeste Janssen, volunteer and special events coordinator of Breast Cancer Action, "The Precautionary Principle is more than just a law; it is a principle that we would hope people would live by. It means everyone works toward less toxins, including individuals, governments, and corporations. Corporations are very much against it, because they'd have to spend money to prove their products are safe. Some opponents argue that this would deter business, be bad for the economy, or stop economic progress. In response, I've heard one proponent say the Precautionary Principle is all about progress and about action, but about doing so in a clean and healthy manner."
The Precautionary Principle was passed in Berkeley, and Oakland is working on similar legislation. Karen Pierce of the Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates, is a resident who has been involved with the Precautionary Principle for three years, trying to get funding, setting up the city process, and now working with the Department of the Environment in San Francisco to craft the language for the ordinance.
"It's getting there, possibly in the next two to three months, the Board of Supervisors will vote on the resolution," Pierce said.
Kendra Klein, community organizer for Breast Cancer Action said that the draft is totally in draft form right now and she could not say what would be included right now.
If the Precautionary Principle had been in place, Peace believes it would have changed her predicament. Peace said many of her co-workers have lung cancer, breast cancer, and ovarian cancer among other diseases. Under the Precautionary Principle, this would have been enough evidence to trigger action, and it would have been up to SF Muni to investigate why so many people were getting sick and prove that it was not their fault. If it was their fault, they would have to change their policies and perhaps even provide compensation to those who got sick.
As it is now, Peace's disability pay ended in July and she is living off her savings. "Yeah, I'm bitter," Peace said. "The city, they know about it, they should be ashamed of themselves."
The Precautionary Principle could also change how research is conducted. The Northern California Cancer Center does not look at breast cancer rates in populations less than 100,000, so breast cancer research tends to be done in largely white populated areas such as the one being done on Caucasian women in Marin County, according to Pierce. Marin County has the highest breast cancer rate in the Bay Area, and there are 7,000 Asian women and 27,000 Hispanic women with breast cancer.
"It's racism," Pierce said. "While in the media and research the color of breast cancer is white, in San Francisco the color of breast cancer is multi- colored. Researchers act like race and ethnicity are biological instead of cultural. If we didn't have racism, there wouldn't be 34,000 women being ignored in Marin."
"It's really complicated and the research is not funded. There's enough evidence to act now instead of waiting for the body count to rise before doing anything," Klein said.
The Bayview Hunters Point is the poorest neighborhood in San Francisco, and one of the poorest neighborhoods in the Bay Area. Thirty-eight percent of all toxic producing industries in San Francisco are in the Bayview Hunters Point, which is primarily a community of color, according to Pierce.
"I don't know anyone in the community that doesn't know someone that has breast cancer or hasn't been affected by it," Pierce said. In the Bayview Hunters Point, the incidence of breast cancer among African- American women under age 50 is twice the rate of African-American women living in other parts of the city, according to Breast Cancer Action.
While the incidence of breast cancer is higher among Caucasian women, the mortality rate of African-American women with breast cancer is higher. Some speculate the reason for this is that African-American women have less access to health care.
"It's like the doctors don't care. It wasn't 'till I found an African-American surgeon that I was treated professionally," Peace said. "It's like they're saying, 'we know she's gonna die pretty soon, we don't have to do anything about it.' That's how they make you feel."
While the Precautionary Principle is still in the works, Peace is looking for someone to help her now. A sewage problem in her house destroyed all her belongings, and problems with her insurance carriers forced her to move into a mobile home.
"They have played a game with me. They don't care that I have cancer, that I need to be in a house, and it's raining. We're fighting for space in 27 feet. This is what I'm reduced to," Peace said.
She cannot afford to live in an apartment or a weekly motel because she has had four surgeries in the past two years, and Peace has spoken to about 20 attorneys from San Francisco, to Oakland, to San Mateo and no one has agreed to represent her.
"I can't afford a big-wig attorney and it's a Catch-22. I don't know what to say--I keep plugging away," Peace said.