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National Radon Action Month

January 5, 2016 By Barbara Mast Leave a Comment

Radon is the primary cause of lung cancer among non-smokers

This is the National Radon Action Month so homeowners are being advised to test their houses and the land beneath those.

Health officials of Morris County, Washington D.C. are urging everybody from homeowners to schools and businesses to participate in the Radon Action Month and perform basic tests which could help improve the health of their families.

The National Environmental Protection Agency proclaimed January the Radon Action Month to raise awareness on the health risks posed by this gas.

The presence of radon around your house requires a simple test performed with the help of testing contractors available at home improvement centers, local health departments and even hardware stores.

Radon is an odorless and colorless gas which occurs naturally from the ground. The gas has been linked to lung cancer so Morris County officials are claiming that by raising awareness about the dangers imposed by this gas they could decrease resident’s exposure to it and reduce the rates of lung cancer cases.

Studies have shown that Hunterdon, Warren, Somerset, Sussex and Morris counties have some of the highest concentrations of radon in the entire state.

The EPA with the Department of Environmental Protection recommend homeowners to star taking actions to mitigate radon if the results of the testing show levels of radon higher than 4 pCi/L (picocuries per liter). The gas can usually be drowned out of the house by installing a special venting system.

Radon is a radioactive dangerous gas which is being released when the naturally occurring uranium from rock and soil breaks down. Low uranium levels are found on the territory of all the nation’s states as they occur naturally in the Earth’s crust.

The radioactive gas enters houses through cracks in the foundation or other openings which are found near the ground such as openings around pipes or sum pits. As we breathe the radioactive particles are inhaled in our lungs where they start damaging the tissue leading to serious conditions such as lung cancer if the exposure occurs on a long term.

According to the EPA radon is guilty of killing about 21,000 people each year. The Surgeon General claims that exposure to radon is the primary cause of lung cancer for people who don’t smoke and the second one after cigarettes for smoking folks.

People can purchase their own measurement kits for $15 to $50 or hire a contractor who might charge between $50 and $200 to perform the test. If you hire a contractor make sure they are certified by the state.

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Lifestyle and Environment Play Major Role in Cancer

December 20, 2015 By Martha Goodwin 2 Comments

Political leaders have the responsibility to build cancer-prevention mechanisms

New study claims that lifestyle and environment play major role in cancer, being responsible for increasing cancer rates.

Actually, according to the study published in the journal Nature at the beginning of this week, lifestyle and environment are accountable for the majority of cancers.

Authors of the study claim that in some types of cancers it is easier to identify the environmental and lifestyle factors which lead to the disease. For example, lung cancer is well known to be caused by air pollution and smoking. For skin cancer it is the increasing amount of radiation coming from the sun and also lifestyle choices such as sunbathing or using tanning beds.

A previous paper was arguing that cancers are mostly a result of ‘bad luck’ given by some gene modifications in the replication of DNA. But the World Health Organization issued a press release, saying that it strongly disagrees with those conclusions, which might be misleading, letting people believe that cancer cannot be prevented.

The World Health Organization declared at that time that about half of the cancers could be prevented by changes in people’s lifestyle and by reducing the exposure to environmental cancer-causing agents.

However, the authors of the recent study claim that intrinsic factors contribute to only 10 to 30 percent of lifetime risk to the development of cancer. They conclude that the majority of the risk factors which lead to development of cancer are given by extrinsic factors which could be prevented.

The external factors which cause the most of the cancers are the polluted air that we breathe, the unhealthy food that we eat and the amount of chemicals we are exposed to.

Even if all of these factors seem to be in our control, actually no individual can have absolute control over all of these factors, especially when they come from environmental elements.

While it would be easier for each person to control what they are eating or if they choose to smoke or use a tanning bed, it is not under their control the quality of the air their breath or the amount of toxic UVs coming from the sun through the thinning ozone.

All these factors are the responsibility of the ruling classes and of the governments that should protect their citizens not only through health programs which might or might not cure their cancers after they have occurred, but also build preventive mechanism by regulating the environmental factors which might lead to the disease.

Image source: freeimages.com

Cancer Rate Increases in Poor Countries

December 14, 2015 By Grant Hamersma Leave a Comment

Population from lower and middle income countries adopt Western lifestyle habits

While it is lowering down in Western countries, cancer rate increases in poor countries, according to a new study. One of the possible explanations is that developing countries are adopting lifestyle behaviors from the West, which lead to an uprising in the number of cancer cases.

On the other side, cancer rate decreases in developed countries as a result of years of research and of the development of technology which makes screenings better and more accessible to anyone.

However, cancer is still the primary cause of death in all countries around the world and it continues to make more and more victims each year. But what has changed is that if historically low income countries were more affected by infectious and viral diseases, now the number of breast, colorectal and lung cancer, which were more specific to wealthier countries, become more and come common in developing countries. That is added to the already high rates in infection-related types of cancer, such as stomach, liver and cervical cancers which were present in these countries.

A team of researchers led by Lindsey Torre from the American Cancer Society analyzed data from an international database containing cancer statistics from the World Health Organization. The study took data from 50 countries situated in different regions across the globe regarding the trends in some widely spread types of cancer, such as cervical, liver, stomach, esophageal, lung, colorectal, prostate and breast cancer.

According to the research team, the increasing levels of Western-specific cancers in developing countries are caused by changings in the lifestyle factors. For example, smoking, which became more common in middle and low income countries, is a major risk factor for both lung and colorectal cancer.

However, when it comes to breast cancer, researchers can’t say for sure which factors are responsible for the increase in its occurrence rates. They believe it might be a result of more awareness and more frequent and accessible screenings. A major role could be played by changings in reproductive patterns, in the way that women have children at older age and breastfeed for shorter periods.

Another major type of cancer affecting women in poor countries is cervical cancer, which is less and less frequent in high-income countries. The regions with the highest mortality rates caused by cervical cancer are Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. In high-income regions, screening programs led to a decrease of up to 70 percent.

Image source: pixabay

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