18 Aug 2013

Cancer inexorably on the rise

The Robert Koch Institute reports that in Germany in 2012 almost half a million people were diagnosed with cancer. And the number of diseases continues to rise. There has been an 80% increase in cancer cases in the last thirty years. 

But what are the reasons for this change? Increasing life expectancy is certainly one reason for the growing number of cases of illness. If you died in the past at 70, you couldn't get cancer at 80. Sounds logical so far. 

But if you take the trouble to sort death statistics by age, you quickly realize that cancer can strike at any age. The usual suspects, alcohol and tobacco, are of course quickly ready as further explanations. We are now witnessing the generation that was able to smoke uninhibitedly for 50 or 60 years. 

Well, and that pushes the cancer rate up properly. The dangers of radiation or toxins are completely ignored. This goes so far in the public consciousness that even serious reactor accidents, like the one in Fukushima 2 years ago, are presented as rather harmless and are then also perceived as such. According to the Japanese government, not a single person has fallen ill from radiation.

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