Dr. Rosalie Bertell (Betterworld.net via Google Images)

Transcription by Vidhya Elango

Rosalie Bertell, an eco-feminist, biometrist and mathematician who did groundbreaking work in health promotion relating to breast cancer and its social and environmental factors, recently passed away. In remembrance, Frieda Werden, host and creator of the Women’s International News Gathering Service (WINGS), a weekly radio series by and about women from all over the world, produced a program which looks at some of Bertell’s contributions to public health. Today we bring you a condensed version of that story, one of many pieces we encourage you to explore from WINGS .

Take a listen here:

For a transcription of 'Remembering Eco-Feminist Rosalie Bertell' read on:

Sarah Feldbloom: Hi, I'm Sarah Feldbloom, Shameless Magazine's Web Producer. Today on the podcast we're featuring a piece produced by WINGS - the Women's International News Gathering Service. Every week WINGS, which is captained by producer Frieda Werden, broadcasts news by and about women from all over the world on community radio stations across Canada, and the PACIFICA network in the United States. This piece is about an amazing woman who did groundbreaking work in health promotion related to breast cancer, her name was Rosalie Bertell.

Over the course of this piece (which has been condensed from its original version), you'll hear about how environmental factors contribute to cancer and breast cancer, and what Bertell attempted and accomplished fighting for community health improvement. According to a 2011 Huffington Post article, Cancer is the leading cause of death in Canada, and according to the Canadian Cancer Society breast cancer is the most common form of cancer for women. Perhaps you've known someone who has been diagnosed with cancer and have seen firsthand what it looks like. It's important for us to make sure we educate ourselves, as early in our lives as possible about social and environmental factors that could increase our chances or the chances of people we know and love of developing it.

In this piece Bertell puts into focus that like many other battles we face cancer is not something that we can fight solely through physical fitness and individual treatment of patients since the development of the disease is largely provoked by social and environmental issues relating to industry and economy. There are ways we can invest in our world now to make ourselves, our communities, and future generations healthier. Take a listen to hear what Bertell discovered through her research. More about what we can do to fight this problem after.

[Choral singing/The WINGS theme song]

Frieda Werden: Welcome to WINGS, a series of news and current affairs programmes, by and about women around the world, produced and distributed by the Women’s International News Gathering Service.

FW: On June 14th, 2012, with shockingly little attention from the press, one of the world’s most modest, public-spirited, and quietly influential scientists passed away. Dr. Rosalie Bertell was a biometrist, a mathematician who studied biological phenomenon. She was born in the US and did her early work there.