Our ‘cancer controversies’ pages – a one-stop myth-busting shop

Despite Internet rumours, plastic bottles do not cause cancer

It seems that not a week goes by without a mention in the media or the internet of something that may cause or prevent cancer. These stories are often over-simplified and can be misleading.

People often worry unnecessarily about these, get confused or distracted from things that genuinely affect the risk of cancer.

To clear up some of the confusion, we’ve added some new pages to the “cancer controversies” section of our website,  to address some of the more common questions that we get asked by the public.

The new topics are:

• Cancer clusters
• Shift work
• Cosmetics
• Super foods
• Medical x-rays
• Talcum powder

And these add to existing pages about:

• Air travel
• Pesticides
• Deodorants
• Plastic bottles
• Hair dyes
• Power lines
• Mobile phones
• Stress

The evidence linking these things to cancer varies greatly. For example, there is strong evidence that deodorants do not cause cancer but there is greater debate over the potential risks of power lines.

The trick is to look at the overall evidence with a sense of perspective. As Henry pointed out a while ago

Cancers are less common amongst people who take regular exercise, have a healthy diet, keep a healthy weight, who don’t smoke, who drink less alcohol, and are sensible in the sun.

It sounds boring but it’s what the science says.

Martine