Cosmetics, chemicals and breast cancer

U.S. activist to deliver Roscoe Lecture

The risk of a Canadian woman developing breast cancer in her lifetime is one in nine, but the causes are harder to pinpoint. Jeanne Rizzo, executive director of the San Francisco-based Breast Cancer Fund, will speak at McGill University on the need to curb the breast cancer epidemic by expanding the definition of prevention beyond routine screenings to include public-health policies that recognize the link between toxic chemicals and the rise in the disease.

Ms. Rizzo’s talk, “Cosmetics, Chemicals and Breast Cancer,” is this year’s Muriel V. Roscoe Annual Lecture and Lanie Melamed Memorial Lecture. It will be held at New Residence Hall, Ballroom A, 3625 Parc, at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 13. The Breast Cancer Fund’s goal is to eliminate the disease’s environmental and other preventable causes.

A nurse, then music, theater and film producer, Ms. Rizzo produced the award-winning film “Climb Against the Odds,” the true story of a dozen breast-cancer survivors who scaled Mt. McKinley in 1998.

The Muriel V. Roscoe Annual Lecture is sponsored by the McGill Centre for Research and Teaching on Women and the McGill Women’s Alumnae Association. It is named for the former chairwoman of McGill’s Botany Department. In 1945, Dr. Roscoe became the second woman in McGill history to be named a full professor. She taught at McGill for 27 years and was warden of Royal Victoria College for 22. The lectureship’s endowment was established by the McGill Women’s Alumnae Association in 1988, in celebration of its 100th anniversary. Breast Cancer Action Montreal sponsors the Lanie Melamed Memorial Lecture.

On the Web: Breast Cancer Fund