well, I heard that according to one of the latest oncology textgbooks,
(don't ask me which, but I work for a company that is in the publishing
biz, and it was on our intranet) 80 to 90 percent of cancers have
environmental causes. Of coruse this includes things like the sun causing
skin cancer, but the person I heard it from was using it to further his
environmentalis beliefs apparently, noting that most of the chemicals we
encounter daily haven't even been tested. Jeez. EVERYTHING causes cancer,
It's a mircle not everyone gets it. (the big question should be not why
does someone get cancer but someone else NOT get cancer?) Who gets
"unlucky" probably has to do with genotype. But I can't agree with the
Greens either, wwho basically wanted all plastics banned. Is cancer the
price we pay for modern life? I can't imagine that you could eliminate all
carcinogens from the environment short of knocking back society to a pre
industrial level. (which would mean most of us would have to starve, or
die in a plague or war, or whatever, since "back to nature" can't support
as many people.)
THen, of course, their are natural carcinogens, naturally occurring ones
anyway...but I can't agree with Bruce Ames. That idiot. He used to blame
it all on man made chemicals and so crusaded against a lot of big
business, until he discovered the natural carcinogens and turned around
180 degrees, selling his opinion to chemical companies! (The whore.
Shoulda been drummed out of the profession...but then I guess he could'nt
liveon an academic salary.) Saying some natural things cause cancer
doesn't exonerate the artificial stuff - it's like saying that throwing
nuclear waste in a local landfill is OK because we get background
radiation from sunshine! There's probably a "background level" of things
that cause cancer too.
well, I can't blame the guy i was quoting, cause his mother died at quite
a young age and he hs 2 friends fighting breast cancer. I mean, they
couldn't even establish a clear link between breast cancer and DDT, which
is KNOWN to be a persistent estrogenoid! (Almost every living thing on the
planet has traces of DDT in its tissues.) Actually, I think it's bee found
the best way not be get breast cancer is have babies when you're 16, buth
then you get a lot of other problems! If you're a woman your own hormones
are going to kill you!
*Should* every single compound in the world be tested on lab mice? Or
people? We could hardly get rid of them all, could we, even if big money
were not involved?!?
Well, that textbook might have said 80 percent of cancer is environmental,
but it would have to stop short of talking Green politics. You couldn't
have potential cures without chemistry, either, and where would a modern
hospital be if it didn't have plastics?
What gives?
Kristin
