Air pollution or smoking: Which is the greater cancer risk?

Pollution

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by John Waters

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Air pollution or smoking: Which is the greater cancer risk?

Tobacco smoke is just one of many carcinogens floating around in our atmosphere today but yet it takes the blame for the massive increase in reported cases of cancer of all types as well as many other kinds of illness. Despite a steady decline in tobacco smoking since the 1950's cancer related illness has increased 50% or more (depending on whose research article you read). Here in the UK, cancer research organisations are constantly bombarding us with tv adverts asking for a donation of 10 a month because "One in three of us will contract cancer in our lifetime".Simple logic says that if smoking were responsible for such a large part of this then the problem will go away now because smoking has been almost banned in most western countries. The horrible truth is that it wont. You only need to surf the web a little to find some of the dreadful carcinogenic substances that are all around us in the air we breathe and realise that air pollution is the major contributor to rising cancer rates and will continue to exacerbate all health problems until our atmosphere gets a clean up.

Here in the UK, where I live, our National Health Service has been conducting an aggressive, arrogant and unyielding campaign against smoking for years. They have spent a huge amount of time and money on this project but they have not been able to find the money to upgrade eight hundred obsolete hospital incinerators and appear to be totally unconcerned about the health risks they are causing. Hospital Incinerators are used to dispose of biological waste, human body parts, urine bags, faeces bags, etc., all wrapped up in plastic. The waste is burnt because there would be a risk of disease if the parts were otherwise disposed of. The incinerator is supposed to burn the waste at 1000 C and have special flue mechanisms to retain all exhaust until properly combusted. The eight hundred old National Health Service hospital incinerators don't reach this standard and as a result Dioxins, Furans and heavy metals are released into the atmosphere. Dioxins and Furans are carcinogens and if you wonder about the effects of heavy metals just look up the story of cadmium and Minnemarta bay! . Should you live downwind of one of the eight hundred sub standard hospital incinerators in this country you could be breathing in this lot and none the wiser.

Another good one to look up while you surf the web is Diesel Exhaust Particulates. Diesel powered trucks and cars have been steadily on the increase over the years mainly because of their fuel efficiency advantage over petrol engines. Considerable exhaust clean up has reduced emissions but diesel particulates are still released into the atmosphere and diesel emission particulates are known to be carcinogenic. They are difficult to filter out because they are so small and they are easily breathed in where they settle to the lowest parts of the lungs. Some countries, notably Japan, seem to be aware and have taken steps to reduce emissions by introducing stringent engine design requirements for new vehicles and banning all diesel powered vehicles more than seven years old. Little has been done in the UK to protect our population from the dangers of diesel exhaust particulates, on the contrary, our government has allowed entrepreneurs to import old "unsafe and unsaleable" diesel cars from Japan for resale in this country. Our government obviously does not care for our national heath to the same extent as the Japanese government and has no shame for the economic mismanagement that has reduced living standards to a level where we will consider buying used, high pollution, Japanese cars!

Well, I live in the country, far away from high volume traffic and dangerous diesel engines and I don't live near a hospital so I have nothing to worry about? Wrong!. If you live in the country you are surrounded by fields growing crops and the crops get sprayed. Herbicides and Insecticides are highly developed, sophisticated and big petrochemical business. Unless you are a scientist there is not much chance of knowing or understanding the types in use today and their causes and effects, you just have to accept manufacturers' assurances that they are fully tested and safe. The effects of some of these herbicides were seen by the world when the US armed forces used defoliants in Vietnam. No connection of course but there was a phenomenal rise in cases of cancer among the indigenous population after wards!. The farmer spraying fields just beyond your back yard will be wearing a respirator and protective clothing but wind blown spray travels a long way and you may breath it in. Perhaps this was just a coincidence but I lost a pond full of large Coy Carp just an hour or so after fields near me were sprayed. The worst thing about this airborne pollution is that it settles on , and is absorbed by, plant life and so the carcinogens enter our food chain.

How about radio waves? Non existent a hundred years ago and not a significant presence until fifty years ago, now they are all around us and there is no escape. We use them to cook in a microwave and it is a new cause for concern that they may be cooking our brains when we use a mobile phone. Living near or under power cables can be very unpleasant to some people who appear to be sensitive to the energy radiated. The growth of this form of energy which is powerful enough to cook our food could very easily be linked to the comparable growth of cancer related disease but of course, that is just pure conjecture!

Smoking has decreased and cancer cases have increased. People are living longer these days despite the fact that most of the oldies would have enjoyed being smokers back in the fifties and sixties. Logic says that there has to be another factor which is causing the increase in cancer. There are known carcinogens in our atmosphere which suggests that air pollution is a much bigger factor than smoking ever was or has been blamed for. Of course, as an alternative, it could be that stress is another major factor. The stress caused through being told not to smoke, not to drink, eat five a day , exercise, etc. etc., but that's another story!

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