Misconceptions About Environmental Pollution, Pesticides and the Causes of Cancer
Table of Contents
- Executive Summary
- Clearing Up Cancer Misconceptions
- Misconception #1: Cancer Rates Are Soaring
- Misconception #2: Environmental Synthetic Chemicals Are An Important Cause of Human Cancer
- Misconception #3: Reducing Pesticide Residues Is an Effective Way to Prevent Diet-Related Cancer The Program in Action
- Misconception #4: Identification of Carcinogenic Chemicals Should Be the Primary Strategy for Preventing Human Cancer
- Misconception #5: Human Exposures to Carcinogens and Other Potential Hazards Are Nearly All Due to Synthetic Chemicals
- Misconception #6: Cancer Risks to Humans Can Be Assessed By Standard High-Dose Animal Cancer Tests
- Misconception #7: Synthetic Chemicals Pose Greater Carcinogenic Hazards than Natural Chemicals
- Misconception #8: The Toxicology of Synthetic Chemicals Is Different from That of Natural Chemicals
- Misconception #9: Pesticides and Other Synthetic Chemicals Are Disrupting Hormones
- Misconception #10: Regulation of Low, Hypothetical Risks Is Effective in Advancing Public Health
- Appendix
- Notes
- About the Authors
Misconception #3: Reducing Pesticide Residues Is an Effective Way to Prevent Diet-Related Cancer The Program in Action
"If fruits and vegetables become more expensive because of reduced synthetic pesticides then cancer, especially among the poor, is likely to increase."
On the contrary, fruits and vegetables are of major importance for reducing cancer; if they become more expensive because of reduced use of synthetic pesticides, then cancer is likely to increase. People with low incomes eat fewer fruits and vegetables and spend a higher percentage of their income on food.
High consumption of fruits and vegetables is associated with a lowered risk of degenerative diseases including cancer, cardiovascular disease, cataracts and brain dysfunction.27
- Over 200 studies in the epidemiological literature have been reviewed that show, with great consistency, an association between low consumption of fruits and vegetables and cancer incidence.28 [See Appendix Table I].
- The quarter of the population with the lowest dietary intake of fruits and vegetables has roughly twice the cancer rate of the quarter with the highest intake for most types of cancer (lung, larynx, oral cavity, esophagus, stomach, colorectal, bladder, pancreas, cervix and ovary).
- 80 percent of U.S. children and adolescents29 and 68 percent of adults did not meet the intake recommended by the National Cancer Institute and the National Research Council: five servings of fruits and vegetables per day.
Publicity about hundreds of minor hypothetical risks, such as pesticide residues (see Misconception #7), can cause loss of perspective on what is important: half the public does not know that fruit and vegetable consumption is a major protection against cancer.30
