Fairfield University School of Nursing graduate student Ellen Rubin to present "Body Burden" during Breast Cancer Awareness Week | Press Releases

As part of Breast Cancer Awareness Week, Fairfield University's School of Nursing will host "Body Burden," a theatrical piece in response to personal experiences with cancer and as a means to initiate dialogue, raise issues, and catalyze communities working toward a healthier planet. The presentation will take place Monday, April 11, at 7p.m. on the first level of the Barone Campus Center. In addition, a dermatology clinic will also be held Wednesday, April 13, from 4-6 p.m. in the Campus Center info desk lobby. The event is co-sponsored by the Student Nurses' Association, the Health Center at Fairfield University, and the Student Health Advisory Council.

Ellen Rubin, a nurse in the graduate program completing a Post Master's certificate in the Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner track, has co-created a unique health education project entitled "Body Burden," that will serve to complete work toward her degree. The show takes its name from Body Burden studies that measure the presence of toxic chemicals in people by analyzing blood, urine, body fat and breast milk samples.

The performance is dedicated to all who are struggling and who have struggled with breast cancer, and particularly to Reva Aver (1954-2004) who said: "Cut slash and burn is what we do to the Earth. Cut slash and burn is what we now must do to our bodies." Rubin said that, "this is the situation we are working to change."

The cast of the piece includes three registered nurses including Rubin and long time performers Jake Wienstein and Jean Vulte' in conjunction with Rogersbarn Circus.

The action takes place on an urban street corner and within the confines of a corporate research and treatment center. "We see the work of the nurse as intimately connected with that of the clown, in its focus on healing and its desire to touch," Rubin noted.

Breast Cancer Awareness Week serves to educate the public about the disease. One of Rubin's aims is to not only to create awareness, but also to communicate to the public that breast cancer is a health crisis that requires political change.

"Although a lot of attention is given to family history of the disease, less than one out of every ten cases actually occurs in women with a genetic predisposition," said Rubin. Contributing factors to the disease include environmental exposure that occur during a woman's life, as well other factors completely out of a woman's control, Rubin said.

The results of Body Burden tests are used to study the possible connections between chemicals and breast cancer. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have documented at least 116 chemicals in the bodies of Americans of all ages. Some of these chemicals have been banned for more than two decades because of toxicity.

Rubin cited data from "State of the Evidence: What is the Connection Between the Environment and Breast Cancer?" a study published by Breast Cancer Action in San Francisco, Calif. ( www.bcaction.org ). This document details the growing evidence that ionizing radiation (X-rays, gamma rays, nuclear radioactivity) and a host of man-made chemicals contribute to the development of breast cancer in humans, either by altering hormone function or gene expression, or by causing genetic mutation. Steroidal and non-steroidal estrogens are known to cause cancer in humans. Diethylstilbestrol (DES) and pesticides such as dieldrin increase the risk of breast cancer. Plastic additives like biphenyl-A, polyvinyl chlorides (PVCs), and gasoline additives such as benzene may be linked with increased risk of breast cancer, due to the ways in which they mimic the action of natural estrogens in our bodies.

"The breast cancer crisis must be addressed by implementing the Precautionary Principle as a matter of public policy," Rubin said. "If there is reason to suspect that a chemical or a kind of radiation is causing harm, its production must be stopped. It is up to the manufacturers and sellers to prove that their products are safe, rather than it being up to us, the public to prove they are harmful. The Precautionary Principle rests on the democratic principle that government officials are obligated to serve the public interest by protecting human health and the environment."

Breast cancer awareness week is April 11-14.