Fighting cancer isn’t all about personal lifestyle, but the environment we live in

[unhappycamper]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/04/fighting-cancer-isnt-all-about-personal-lifestyle-but-the-environment-we-live-in/



Fighting cancer isn’t all about personal lifestyle, but the environment we live in
By Alex Andreou, The Guardian
Tuesday, February 4, 2014 7:51 EST

The World Health Organisation published its World Cancer Report on Monday. It is a hefty document of 800 pages which warns of a “tidal wave” of cancer facing the world over the next 20 years. The media reaction to this news on the whole has been sadly, but perhaps predictably, sensationalist.

Ignored is the report’s conclusion that only half of the 24m cases projected by 2035 may be preventable. Ignored is the conclusion that the main reasons for this increase are population growth and increased life expectancy. Instead, the focus has almost exclusively centred on other factors contributing to preventable cancers, and then very selectively.

The report identifies several major sources of preventable cancer; they include smoking, infections, alcohol, obesity, radiation and air pollution. Of those sources, infections, radiation and air pollution have been set aside and discussion has zeroed in on the narrow subset of what are being described as “lifestyle choices”. Because to talk about air pollution or infections or radiation would require a discussion of wealth inequalities, of living conditions, of asymmetry of information, of destructive environmental choices. And all that is too difficult.

Even in discussing smoking, alcohol and obesity, the actual recommendations of the WHO are ignored. They talk of more money going into early detection, of regulating food and drink manufacturers more tightly, of a tax on sugared drinks, of clearer labelling on alcohol, of incentives on banning smoking in public places. But the responsibility of manufacturers not to make unhealthy products and market them aggressively and the responsibility of the state to regulate big business are being airbrushed out of the report. Such ideas are not fashionable. Red tape and corporate responsibility are enemies of enterprise and contrary to economic growth.

[Quantess]

1. Infections can be carcinogenic?

I did not know that. Interesting.

[hedgehog]

2. But, but ......Pink ribbons! Pink ribbons for everybody and every thing!

"Breast Cancer Action coined the term pinkwashing as part of our Think Before You Pink® campaign. Pinkwasher: (pink’-wah-sher) noun. A company or organization that claims to care about breast cancer by promoting a pink ribbon product, but at the same time produces, manufactures and/or sells products that are linked to the disease."

http://thinkbeforeyoupink.org/?page_id=13

[leftyladyfrommo]

3. Look at all the chemicals in our houses.

All the cleaning stuff, all the bug spray.

I have a friend who has a problem with roaches. She sprays Raid constantly. That just can't be good for you. Can't tell her that, though. She just says she's not allergic to it so it's OK.