Weird Science
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009
The April 2009 issue of Harvard Men’s Health Watch published a list of the ten best ways to avoid getting cancer. The list consists of The Usual Good Advice — don’t smoke, avoid fatty foods, that sort of thing. But a couple of items seem, to me, unhelpful.
Item 7 is “Avoid exposure to industrial and environmental toxins such as asbestos, benzene, aromatic amines, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).” Yes, words to live by. I just hate it when I’m walking along, minding my own business, when some obnoxious aromatic amine comes along to accost me with its delocalized electrons. Just ruins my day.
(Truth is, I had never heard of aromatic amines, so I looked them up, and I still can’t say what they are. I could be in a regular nest of them right now and not know it.)
Item 8 is “Avoid infections that contribute to cancer, including hepatitis, HIV, and the human papillomavirus (HPV).” Some of these infections can generally be avoided through, um, behavioral caution, but some cannot. We learned recently how a number of people were infected with hepatitis C through sloppy medical practices at an endoscopy clinic.
I understand that people get hepatitis A from unhygienic restaurants, or from eating shellfish that were harvested from sewage-contaminated water. Do you know where your shellfish were harvested?
Seriously, this is why we need regulatory agencies, and regulations with teeth. I wouldn’t know a polychlorinated biphenyl if I tripped over it. The Ayn Randian ideal of the wise and noble businessman who wouldn’t knowingly release contaminants into the environment may be all the regulation they need on Planet Randbot, but on this planet, more is required.
People suffering from mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases usually were exposed to asbestos in the workplace. They either didn’t know that asbestos was dangerous, or they didn’t know the stuff they were working with was asbestos. Either way, telling people to avoid asbestos isn’t very helpful.
Here’s another one — item 6 is “Avoid unnecessary exposure to radiation.” This includes too much sun exposure many medical x-rays, plus radon in your home. (Radon in my home?)
I remember that when I was a small child in the 1950s it was common for children’s shoe stores to x-ray children’s feet. No, really, and the x-ray apparatus was not behind a lead curtain, but right in the middle of the store, and kids could play on it. I remember sticking my feet into the thing and watching my toe-bones wiggle while my mother examined mary janes and saddle oxfords. This was, even in the 1950s, terrible judgment on the part of some corporate execs.
However, I never heard that we boomers have suffered unusual amounts of foot cancer. I suppose we were lucky.
June 5, 2009
Barbara O’Brien
