I hate Cancer

It seems to me that lately every few weeks I hear that someone I know and love has been diagnosed with cancer. Mr. Blue, my principal for 18 years, has lung cancer and a spot on his brain. Today I learned that Mr. Capps, the assistant principal for 19 years, has lung cancer. My friend Sharyl is still undergoing treatment for lung cancer; Natalie O'Dell is again undergoing chemo for cancer in her stomach.
I have been a American Cancer Society volunteer for several years both in Tecumseh, OKC, and even at an event in Washington D. C. I know we are making great strides in research, so I will continue to raise money and volunteer, but I wish there was a way to speed up the research so that my friends could be helped now. The strangest thing to me is that none of these people were smokers. I'm not sure about Mr. Blue and Mr. Capps, but I know Sharyl never smoked. I do know that neither of the men have been smokers for the almost twenty years that I have known them.
I think our environment is killing us. My friend and I were talking about playing outside when the DDT truck used to come around to spray for mosquitos when we were kids. We didn't get a warning; we didn't run in the house. She said she used to ride her bicycle behind the truck.
When I think of all the chemicals we are exposed to, it is frightening. The wax stripper that the custodians use reeks. It couldn't be good to breath that stuff in; however, when I taught summer school, I breathed it in every day. I have seen some of the custodians wear masks, but not all. They should be required to wear them.
One thing that Ron Webb, who died of lung cancer this spring, James Blue, and Roy Capps had in common (besides the building that I work in) is that they all coached for many years. The herbicides and pesticides used on baseball and football fields can't be healthy for us to breath in.
Even when we go to the mall, we walk by the nail salons and smell that horrible chemical smell that permeates the area. I am sensitive to harmful chemicals because my sister, Phyllis, would still be alive today if she hadn't been exposed to barilium and asbestos at Tinker, so I try not to put myself in harms way. How do you avoid it completely?
Maybe someday we will know the source of all cancer and be able to avoid carcenogens, but until then, we need to use our good judgement.