Cancer rates are increasing

More and more people are diagnosed with cancer each year. Overall cancer rates have increased by 22 percent for women and 56 percent for men over the course of a single generation. In developed countries, the overall cancer mortality is more than twice as high as in developing countries.

Main causes of cancer

Tobacco is the leading cause of cancer deaths (22%) followed by other lifestyle factors (10%) such as obesity, poor diet, lack of physical activity, alcohol.

Environmental pollutants and cancer

The link between chemical pollutants and cancer is well established. Exposure to a number of chemicals can increase the risk of cancer. More than 1,400 chemicals are known or likely carcinogens meaning they promote the formation of cancer. In a study, 420 of these chemicals were found in the human body.

The rates of certain types of cancer among some industrial workers are up to 10 times higher than in the general population. Children of workers handling chemical carcinogens have sharply increased cancer rates.

Increased risk of testicular cancer

Between 1960 and 2002, men from Europe, the United States and New Zealand became up to 7 times more likely to suffer from testicular cancer.

Cancer linked to air pollution

Smoking remains the most important (and avoidable) risk of cancer, but lung cancer among non-smokers have doubled over the last decades. A wide range of occupational exposures and urban air pollution have been shown to cause lung cancer.

In 2017, air pollution was responsible for an estimated 350,000 deaths from lung cancer worldwide.