Media
Bridging the Gap on Environmental Breast Cancers
Jane McArthur was a Final Five winner in the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s 2019 Storytellers challenge - this video was her initial entry into the competition.
Jane McArthur, PhD Candidate, University of Windsor
Jane McArthur, PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology at University of Windsor is looking for women who have worked near the Ambassador Bridge in customs or at the duty-free shop etc. for a study on their perceptions of breast cancer risks.
WENOW LIVE with Jane McArthur
WENOW LIVE with Ph.D Candidate of the University of Windsor Jane McArthur
AM800, November 18, 2018Radio/Podcast
URL: http://www.iheartradio.ca/am800/news/looking-for-the-numbers-behind-breast-cancer-1.8567869
Silenced and sacrificed: COVID-19 health-care workers’ secret suffering unveiled
The Conversation Canada, December 14, 2020Print
Struggles of health-care workers during pandemic unveiled during study
The Windsor Star, December 6, 2020Print
Impact on children during pandemic must not be dismissed
Without all the evidence on COVID-19, use the precautionary principle
The Windsor Star, April 12, 2020Print
The precautionary principle, which is key to public health and environmental health would have better prepared us to deal with the structural implications of COVID19 and should be applied to other health issues moving forward, with equity and justice.
Are Canadian water officials using the denial playbook?
The Windsor Star, November 24, 2019Print
Water officials in Canada now seem to be using the PR playbook for denial and manufacture of doubt. Responding to the findings of a disturbing investigation into the lead in Canadian tap water released on November 4, 2019, public officials seem to be taking their cues from the tobacco, oil, asbestos, and plastics industries as they downplay serious public health concerns. Discrediting science as a political strategy goes against our values in Windsor-Essex where building relationships between citizens, their governments and public institutions is a stated mission.
Take Off the Rose Coloured Glasses for Breast Cancer Awareness Month
The Windsor Star, October 6, 2019Print
We Shouldn't Trade Our Health for a Paycheque
The Windsor Star, December 8, 2018Print
URL: https://windsorstar.com/opinion/columnists/guest-column-we-shouldnt-trade-our-health-for-a-paycheque
Can the evidence in the case of one woman at one workplace tell us something about breast cancer that we don’t already know? It can. Her story highlights something that is often missing when we talk about breast cancer: our environment, and the important role it is likely playing in contributing to breast cancer, among many other health conditions.
Voters deserve a commitment to strong environmental health protections
Not the mid-life crisis I expected
National ObservorOnline
URL: https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/08/03/opinion/climate-change-mid-life-crisis
Health workers must help write a happy ending for Canada's environmental protection law
Guest column: Everyone should have legal right to healthy environment
Think adverse environmental effects affect people equally? Ask these women
The Hill Times, April 22, 2021Online
URL: https://www.hilltimes.com/2021/04/22/cepa/294595
Women, children, and racialized people's health are particularly vulnerable to adverse environmental effects for biological and socioeconomic reasons. We can use breast cancer as an example of how these differential impacts play out. A strong Bill C-230 to reform the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, which recognizes the right to a healthy environment, defense of populations made vulnerable, current evidence of health risks related to chemical and other exposures, gendered and racialized inequalities in toxic exposures, and the precautionary principle is critical now.
CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT | News Experts raise concerns about tampon applicators being excluded from federal plastics ban
Prioritizing Collective Responsibilities in the Response to COVID-19
Canadian DimensionsOnline
With Filipe Duarte
How governments can make public health decisions when some information about coronavirus is missing
The Conversation Canada, April 4, 2021Online
Blaming women for breast cancer ignores environmental risk factors
The Conversation CanadaOnline
Breast cancer awareness is not enough: Public health strategies need to be based on prevention
The Conversation Canada, October 14, 2020Online
As the oceans rise, so do your risks of breast cancer
The Conversation, January 15, 2019Online
URL: https://theconversation.com/as-the-oceans-rise-so-do-your-risks-of-breast-cancer-108420
It is encouraging to see greater attention in the media to the issue of climate change and its effects on the life-support systems of the planet. The link between breast cancer and the environment, however, is being overlooked. Evidence shows that the growth of air pollutants – as well as rising temperatures, increased rain and flooding – connect breast cancer with climate change. At this important moment in history, as we debate the poor state of the environment and the adverse outcomes associated with it, we have the opportunity to make prevention of the many diseases — including breast cancer — a priority.
Cancer du sein chez les douanières: le syndicat veut une enquête
Radio-Canada, November 17, 2018Online
URL: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1136120/cancer-sein-pollution-canada-sante-publique-windsor
Investigate breast cancer cases at Ambassador Bridge, says customs union and researcher
Windsor Star, November 15, 2018Online
Researcher seeks 20 women for breast cancer study
Windsor Cancer Research Group, June 1, 2018Online
URL: http://windsorcancerresearch.com/2018/05/14/researcher-seeks-20-women-for-breast-cancer-study/
Researcher seeks 20 women for breast cancer study
The National Post, May 14, 2018Online
Researcher seeks 20 women for breast cancer study
Windsor Star, May 14, 2018Online
URL: https://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/researcher-seeks-20-women-for-breast-cancer-study
Novel Virus, Old Story: Government Failings Put Health Care Workers at Risk
by McArthur, Jane E., Margaret M. Keith and James T. Brophy
Published by Between The Lines Publishing
May 1, 2020
Book Chapter, Sick of the System
URL: https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/novel-virus-old-story
Breast Cancer and Work: Why We Need To Build A Movement
by Brophy, James T., Margaret M. Keith, McArthur, Jane E
Published by European Trade Union Institute
October 1, 2020
Ontario Health Care Workers in the Time of COVID-19
by Brophy, James T., Margaret M. Keith, Hurley, Michael, McArthur, Jane E
Published by New Solutions: A Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health Policy
November 1, 2020
REPORT Reducing Chemical Exposures: A Community Environmental Consultation
by Jane McArthur, Margaret Keith and James Brophy
Published by Toxic Free Canada-Ontario, Sponsored by OHCOW
March 1, 2009
It was the intention of this project to increase community members’ understanding of health risks related to chemical exposures and ultimately to influence change in personal and institutional practices. It was also meant to open the door for grassroots dialogue regarding green technology initiatives, which may have broader benefits for the economically challenged Windsor-Essex
region.
There were several themes that were voiced over and over again in the various consultations from community members of all ages and backgrounds. It is clear that the participating residents of Windsor-Essex want a cleaner environment, better environmental laws and stricter enforcement, a more fair and just economy, better mass transit, more bike paths, improved natural surroundings,
access to local healthy foods, greater use of wind and solar power, and greener, healthier jobs.
This report should serve as a resource, not only to forward-thinking community members, but also to officials and elected leaders whose mandate it is to address their constituents’ priority concerns.
Toronto Star Coverage and the Politics of Breast Cancer
by Jane McArthur & James P. Winter
Published by Synaesthesia: Communication Across Cultures
August 1, 2014
Research on media coverage of breast cancer has illustrated a
tendency to report most often on prevalence, detection and treatment with a general lack of environmental and prevention oriented stories. In spite of growing evidence of links of causation between environmental and occupational exposures to breast cancer, the media seem generally to omit these factors. A detailed Critical Discourse Analysis was conducted on 125 articles from the Toronto Star from the year 2012, with the Propaganda Model as the theoretical framework. Seven different themes were found in the coverage of breast cancer. The study exposed how the dominant ideology came to bear on those texts, including the general omission and/or downplaying of environmental and occupational exposures in relation to breast cancer, as well as primary prevention. Given the significance for public health, understanding how the media cover the breast cancer epidemic can reveal necessary paradigm shifts.
URL: https://www.synaesthesiajournal.com/uploads/7/3/4/7/73473431/mcarthur_winter_v2_n4_summer.pdf
Challenging the Dominant Breast Cancer Causation Paradigm through the Lens of Media Discourses
by Jane McArthur
Published by Fernwood Publishing
October 1, 2018
Chapter in the Edited book "Sick and Tired: Health and Safety Inequalities", Edited by Stephanie Premji
Recognition, prevention and compensation are predicated on prevailing social discourses about hazards and health problems. Jane McArthur, in Chapter 6, considers the role of the media in perpetuating dominant representations of breast cancer, a disease that claims the lives of over half a million women worldwide each year (WHO 2016). Based on an analysis of Toronto Star newspaper articles, McArthur determines that constructions of breast cancer risk in media discourses centre on lifestyle, genetics and personal responsibility, while occupational and environmental risks and primary prevention are largely omitted. She argues that discourses that emphasize individual choice and modifiable personal behaviours fail to account for the current scientific understandings of breast cancer risks and reflect neoliberal dogmas and policies
Biography
Jane E. McArthur joined CAPE in 2021 as the Toxics Campaign Director after completing her Ph.D. as a SSHRC Doctoral Fellow in Sociology/Social Justice at the University of Windsor. She is an advocate and storyteller who combines her education in sociology, social justice, health, environment and communications with 25 years of working on issues of environmental and occupational health through community based research, education and advocacy.
With past experience in Research Coordination and Assistance on projects including the "Risk Exploration Project", “Living and Working in Essex and Kent Counties”, and "Lifetime Histories Breast Cancer Research Study", McArthur's work is rooted in community-based health investigations with a view to prevention.
Though her work for improved well-being and justice has often had breast cancer as a focus, she also works through broader issues of health and well-being as they intersect with gender, race, class and inequalities in power, all with a view to empowerment and social change from the grassroots up through various levels of governance.
With a recognition of the importance of the role of the media in contributing to the construction of realities in contemporary society, investigating the production of discourses are a pivotal aspect of McArthur's ongoing work in community environmental health perspectives.
Her dissertation research examined how women who work in an environment with an identified risk of breast cancer construct understandings and narratives of their risks and how women perceive and exercise agency in the acceptance, avoidance or negotiation of those risks.
McArthur has received multiple awards for her research.
Recognition/Reconnaissance
Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS), Barbara Rosenblum Cancer Dissertation Scholarship, 2019 | Professional
SSHRC Final 5 Storyteller | Professional
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Doctoral Fellowship | Professional
Elena Loring Memorial Award for Breast Cancer Research | Professional
Three time Gail Rosenblum Memorial Breast Cancer Research Award Recipient | Professional
Two Time Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) Recipient | Professional
Additional Titles and Affiliations
Member, Environmental Sustainability Advisory Committee, University of Windsor
Windsor Cancer Research Group (WCRG)
The Windsor Cancer Research Group (WCRG) is an assembly of local researchers, healthcare professionals and community partners working together to build teams to strengthen our local cancer research programs and bridge collaborations with our neighbouring cancer centres.
Canadian Sociological Association (CSA)
The Canadian Sociological Association (CSA) is a professional association that promotes research, publication and teaching in Sociology in Canada.
WE-SPARK Health Institute, University of Windsor
Past Talks
Moderator, Windsor West Candidates Debate: 100 Debates for the Environment 2019
Windsor West Candidates Debate: 100 Debates for the Environment 2019
University of Windsor, October 3, 2019