Environmental Pollution and Cancer

What are the true costs of man-made pollution? The book pointed out some shocking statistics about the prevalence of certain kinds of cancers and their increased incidence in relation to some types of environmental pollutants. During the twentieth century the number of people diagnosed with cancer globally has steadily increased.
No single identifiable factor can be isolated as been the primary cause, but as Rachel Carson points out in her book it might be no coincidence that the increase coincided with the mass use of pesticides in the environment.

 

The increased incidence of Cancer

In the book Rachel Carson points us to the fact that in 1959 (according to the Office of Vital Statistics) cancer accounted for 15 per cent of all deaths in 1958 compared with only 4 per cent in 1900 in the U.S.
In recent years, incident rates increased for various forms of cancers including cancers of the liver, kidney and esophagus (2001-2005) as well as for melanoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma. That was a staggering increase in cancer rates. What could be responsible? What was present in the lives of those in the 1950s and later that was absent from people earlier in the century? Is environmental pollution in any way responsible?

 

In the early twentieth century cancer in children was considered an extreme rarity but by the middle of the century more American children died of cancer than any other disease. In fact 12 per cent of all deaths were caused by cancer in children between the ages of one and fourteen in 1958. In 1998 there were more than 12,400 childhood cancer cases in the U.S and 2,500 childhood deaths due to cancer.

 

There are similar trends in other countries

The same kinds of trends were also apparent in other industrialized countries. For example in the U.K the numbers of cancers diagnosed in children increased at rate of 0.8% a year on average between the time of Silent Spring 1962 and 1998, with a total increase of 35% over the same period. UK cancer research

 

Leukaemia and Lymphoma

Of all the cancers leukaemia and lymphomas, showed the most increase from the mid-twentieth century onward. In 1960 from figures drawn from the National Office of Vital Statistics malignancies of the blood and lymph claimed more than 25,400 lives in the U.S (a sharp increase from the 1950 figure of 16,690).
But in 2008 it is estimated that more than 42,000 died from blood and lymph related cancers. A very large number considering the increased survival rates of those recently diagnosed with cancers compared to the survival rates earlier in the century U.S Cancer institute.

 

Environmental Pollution is one of the factors responsible for cancers

Of course, improved methods of diagnosis could be responsible for the large increase of childhood cancers. But the fact that unborn children are more sensitive to chemical pollutants is surely a factor that cannot be discounted when trying to isolate the reasons for the increased incidence of childhood cancers.
The causes for cancers are multi-factorial. Genetics, lifestyle and diet are other crucial elements that determine the likelihood of any one individual developing cancer. We know that genetics hasn’t changed very much from the beginning of the century but lifestyle and diet has changed considerably. And for many it has changed for the worse.
However, we know that some man-made chemicals are proven carcinogens (for example benzene and arsenic). Some of these chemicals are often present in very small amounts in the air we breathe (been produced from cigarette smoke or everyday combustion processes, cars, lorries etc...). Some probable human carcinogens are also known to be present in some pesticides (albeit again in very small amounts). It is very likely that these environmental pollutants act as cancer triggers within living systems in conjunction with the other determining factors.