Cancer: Do you notice uptick?

[Valerie]

One thing that could be happening is that obvious man-made causes of cancer are declining. Such as smoking and industrial chemicals such as asbestos that are no longer being used. We have done a lot of regulation of overt carcinogens in commerce and industry over the past 50 years.

While at the same time cancers caused by low-level environmental exposure to toxins in the air, soil, and water are increasing. Because that has been an area that has gotten far less attention and regulation.

Seems to be the case.
In fact, most people I know whose dog dies, it seems are dying from cancer. 2 of ours in OH died from cancer. Our most recent was bladder cancer. Vet said that had to be environmental.

There are at least 2 blood pressure medications that they came out saying cause cancer. My Mom was on one of those a long time. She got stomach cancer ,& as it turned out, was one of the cancers her BP was known to cause. At 82, & being stage 3, we were thinking this may be it, but God brought her through.

Zantac- for acid reflux, I see commercials for it causing cancer too. I cringe as I still sell it at work. Doctors still prescribe the BP meds known to cause cancer as well.

Getting harder to avoid cancer.

America allows ingredients other countries ban.
We all die somehow, but the high financial cost of cancer takes a toll on some, lines the pockets of others.

[silentreader]

“Nothing to worry about. Cancer rates, crime rates, and grocery prices are continuing to go down.”

- The American Pravda

My mistake. Ignore those last graphs. I didn't realize lung cancer and Sweden were the default selection. There are drop-down menus that let you select nation and type of cancer. You can go to the side and look at the data yourself and select for cancer type (or all cancers except melanoma) and for country. The link is on the bottom of my post.

Here is the data for the US showing all cancers (except melanoma). The results are even more striking. The incidence of cancer is relatively level or dropping since 2000 but the mortality rate is dropping more dramatically.

I'm guessing possibly most of the anecdotal impressions we're hearing are from after the graph timeline. The graphs are not "data from today".

[Ken]

I'm guessing possibly most of the anecdotal impressions we're hearing are from after the graph timeline. The graphs are not "data from today".

Although it doesn't seem to show it. I think the data goes out to 2022 which is I think the most recent data that the CDC has available. It takes time to edit and vet raw data before making it available.

That said, I suspect part of what is happening is that cancer rates aren't really increasing. What might actually be happening is that the types of cancer in the population are shifting away from overt causes like lung cancer caused by smoking or industrial asbestos. Which we are eliminating. And shifting towards environmental causes that are much more difficult to get a handle on.

So maybe we are seeing less cancers where we say..."yeah, he was a smoker, not surprising that he got lung cancer" and more cancers where the cause is more of a mystery and probably due to some sort of chronic environmental exposure to things we aren't really regulating.

[Josh]

Generally speaking, conservative Mennonites haven’t had to deal much with lung cancer from smoking.