Cancer is political – as the argument about its causes shows | John Vidal
by John Vidal from on (#Y3J6)
New research suggests that environmental factors are responsible for the huge majority of cancers; but opposing studies suggest it's down to genetics and bad luck. Which you believe may depend on your own philosophy
In 1925, the surgeon Frederick Pybus compared the lungs of people who had been living in smoke-polluted Newcastle with those of people from the Northumbrian countryside. One set was clean and pink; the other black and cancerous - no prizes for guessing which was which. The results led Pybus to conduct lifelong research into the links between air pollution and cancers.
The medical establishment at the time was dismissive of the smoke theory, but the scientific tide eventually turned and in 2013 the World Health Organisation finally accepted his hypothesis that the carcinogens found in soot and diesel fumes were a cause of some cancers.
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