Childhood Cancer Rates Are Rising, And The Reason May Surprise You
Cancer has always existed in humans, surely. Surely there were ancient cave-people who suffered from the scourge, even if they didn’t have a name for it or understand it like we do today.
And understand much of it we do. To be sure there is a lot left to discover. But surely more money, research hours and experimentation has been thrown at cancer than at any other disease in history. You might be able to say that no single other topic has been the recipient of so much attention and focus.
So why then, are cancer rates going up? In 1900 only 64 out of every 100,000 people died of cancer. Today that figure is more like 200 out of every 100,000.
People attribute this rise to modern methods for detecting cancer–a hundred years ago people likely died of it without ever knowing what it was–as well as increased life span.
But one weird, and alarming place where cancer rates are increasing that isn’t accounted for in this telling is in children.
In the U.K. last year the number of children who died of cancer was up 40 percent over what it was in 1998. What possible reason could there be for this?
According to charity group Children With Cancer U.K., the reasons for this are essentially modern life. An adviser with the group, Dr. Denis Henshaw, had this to say:
“Air pollution was by far the biggest culprit, accounting for around 40 percent of the rise,” he said, “but other elements of modern lifestyles are also to blame. Among these are obesity, pesticides and solvents inhaled during pregnancy, circadian rhythm disruption through too much bright light at night, radiation from x-rays and CT scans, smoking during and after pregnancy, magnetic fields from power lines, gadgets in homes, and potentially, radiation from mobile phones.”
And while Dr. Henshaw failed to provide solid evidence to back the 40 percent claim, among others, the carcinogenic elements inherent in all the things he named are known and have been studies.
Indeed, it follows that if that many more children are dying of cancer over just a two decade time frame, we need to look at what is different between then and now:
• There are certainly more pesticides in use today than there were 15 years ago
• Air pollution is far worse than it was then, with thousands more vehicles on the roads
• Obesity rates have skyrocketed, and along with them inflammatory issues and autoimmune diseases
• Solvents and chemicals are more prevalent than ever,
• …as are bright lights and electronic gadgets.
So in all, Dr. Henshaw’s explanation for the otherwise inexplicable rise in childhood cancer is as good as any.
We’re still waiting to hear from officialdom on the matter.
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UK Researchers Reveal Why Childhood Cancers Recently Soared 40 Percent