This Causes Cancer

Thanks to the person who sent me this, who didn’t leave a name. It’s another alcohol-causes-cancer story, except this time it’s alcohol mouthwash.

The Dental Journal of Australia has published a review* which states that the alcohol in mouthwash can lead to oral cancer. The (Australian) Daily Telegraph reports the story, though it loses hysteria marks by failing to provide a percentage increase risk of dying.

Mouthwash linked to cancer

I’ll leave the anonymous tipster to make the final comment:

Oral Sex = Cancer.
Cleaning the taste of Cancer-causing Oral Sex from your mouth = Cancer.

Cancer 2 - Humanity 0.

*Yes, the story’s from January. News travels slowly from the other side of the world

A few people have pointed me at this one from 2007; it seems to have made a sudden reappearance at the top of the BBC’s “most read” list. But, it’s been a bit quiet on the new causes of cancer front, so why not?

Oral sex linked to throat cancer

I suppose the obvious question is whether there’s any difference in the rates of cancer between men and women. Sadly, the article doesn’t say.

Thanks to David, Dan Ashcroft and Anders Stake

World renowned paediatric toxicologist Gwyneth Paltrow has released the results of a detailed study of the effects on children of chemicals in products such as shampoo.

Just kidding.

She has, however, claimed that cancer, asthma, ADHD and autism are on the rise, for which we should blame “environmental toxins” in everyday products, like shampoo.

The Mail and the Sun report that Cancer Research UK and the Goverment’s food safety advisor, bacteriologist Professor Hugh Pennington have dismissed the claims as rubbish (”Shampoo is perfectly safe, unless you drink it in large quantities”).

‘I fear that shampoo gives cancer to children’: Experts fury at Gwyneth Paltrow’s ‘loopy’ health claims

Gwyneth’s ‘loopy’ cancer claims

If you do drink it in large quantities, make sure it’s under 70°C

A study has shown a link between tea and oesophageal cancer. The problem’s not the tea itself, but the temperature at which it is drunk; as the Express says, drinking tea above 70°C (common in Northern Iran, where the study was carried out, but not in the UK) can increase your risk of cancer by eight times.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t quite reflected in the headline: PIPING HOT TEA GIVES YOU CANCER

The advice is to leave your cuppa for four minutes before drinking it. Then, take your brew, and a moment to reflect on the start of the LA Times’s coverage of this story:

Is there anything left in life that doesn’t cause cancer?

Thanks to Sam Crawley, JS, Jamie Collins, David and Mike Techno for pointing me to this BBC News story

I didn’t want to hop onto the Jade Goody^* bandwagon, but this piece from the Express was just too bizarre to miss.

A study carried out last year in Philadelphia suggests that the immune systems of women under stress deal less well with HPV, the virus which can cause cervical cancer. The Express quotes the report’s author, Dr Carolyn Fang, as she makes some general comments about HPV, cancer and stress. It goes on to find a GP to state, in equally general terms, that people living stressful lives are more at risk of developing cancer.

The Express’s take on this?

EXPERTS believe Jade’s public humiliation over the Big Brother race row could have led to her developing cervical cancer.

Obviously, the Express would never seek to sensationalise a story with no proof, so they must have run out of time to name these EXPERTS, or forgotten to. Or their dog ate it.

Story: Shilpa’s race row linked to cancer

^*“the angles have u now,u willl never b forgotten”, according to a tribute on Facebook

Reuters UK is carrying a story from New York, which claims that eating red meat and processed meat modestly increases the risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease, according to a report by the (American) National Cancer Institute.

Red and processed meat increases risk of death

Yes, death. Serious business. How do you top a story like that?

Easy, you give it to the Reuters Washington Bureau:

Red meat raises risk of all kinds of death: study

So, er, there’s the kind that kills you, and, erm…

Ulster scientist warns of plastic baby bottles ‘cancer risk’

This one apparently doesn’t affect the US so much; many companies there have voluntarily stopped making baby bottles containing Bisphenol A, which seems to be a generally unpleasant chemical as well as a carcinogen; Canada has banned it outright.

Call for UK to “follow US lead” in plastic baby feeding bottles

Probable Carcinogens Found in Baby Toiletries, reports the Washington Post.

It seems that a number of baby products sold in the USA contain formaldehyde and/or something called 1,4-dioxane, both known carcinogens, according to the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.

Meanwhile, the “Erm, Yes…” Award for Scientific Accuracy goes to this headline: Report: Some Children’s Bath Products May Contain Chemicals

Data from 57,200 people suggests that vegetarians have generally lower incidences of cancer than meat eaters, though it would also seem that vegetarians have higher rates of colorectal cancer than their meat-eating friends.

Vegetarians ‘get fewer cancers’

So, especially for the vegetarians, March (at least in the US) is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.

Thanks to Sam Crawley and Dave

The Danish Goverment is paying compensation to 40 women who got breast cancer after working night shifts, after research has suggested a link between the two, reports The Telegraph

CNN is retelling the story as 38 women being paid compensation by their employers: Payout for women who got breast cancer after night shifts

The Mail says it’s 37 (though it starts with “almost 40″): Denmark compensates women who developed breast cancer after working nights… but Britain denies there’s a risk

…so it must be true.

Thanks to Sam Crawley