We have suddenly found the scientific world going from the sublime to the utterly ridiculous-as you will clearly see. Carcinogen is a word we are all now fully aware of as it has a bit to do with smoking & cancer and also non-smoking & cancer!
Carcinogen: (from Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia) “A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that is an agent directly involved in causing cancer.”
Now I can see where tobacco smoking or chewing might come into this and I can see where exhaust fumes fit into the equation (Cars, in – a – notion – al – way?) as they are both forms of combustible actions that give off an amount of toxicity (however small or large that amount may be). But poverty? How in God’s name can poverty be a carcinogen? Poverty is not a substance (though it can be a lack of substance!), it is not a potent liquid or a toxic gas – it’s a ‘nothing’. it’s a state of personal being; ie I live in a house, I live in a cardboard box but nobody is born that way. Poverty and wealth are what we achieve for ourselves, not something that comes swooping down from the skies to infect/affect us!
According to the ACS (American Cancer Society) poverty has a great bearing on your chances of being a victim of cancer! Unbelievable. Does this mean that all babies born to families earning less than £50,000 per annum automatically have 4 or 5 times more chance of getting cancer than those born to families earning £50,001? Since when did wealth have anything to do with cancer?
Paul Leonard Newman, actor, multi-millionaire, donator of extraordinary amounts of money to worthy causes (I didn’t see ACS on his list!), philanthropist, ex-smoker, died aged 83 from lung cancer although he had long given up smoking, so poverty didn’t apply in his case (but of course the purists will seize upon his previous smoking habit). Paul Newman is only one of many famously rich people to have succumbed to cancer of one form or another.
But you have got to read the whole ludicrous report for yourselves and make up your own minds for I’m afraid that my view is simple-money can be in your pocket & cancer can be in your genes!