cancer
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Here’s how to never get cancer
Over at Jezebel, the inestimable Lindy West has noticed just how many foods, chemicals, and habits are reported give you cancer, and she’s figured out how to dodge them all. She walks us through a day of her cancer-free lifestyle, from waking up in a windowless apartment in Singapore (lower rates of cancer in women) […]
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Low doses of BPA are worse for you than high doses
The pesticide and plastics industry have a lot invested in the safety of chemicals like bisphenol A and atrazine. Such “endocrine-disrupting” chemicals mimic human hormones, and research has tied them to health problems like cancer and infertility. But these industries have always held up studies that look at exposure to huge doses of endocrine disruptors. […]
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People living near mountaintop-removal mines have way more cancer
Mountaintop-removal mining is not only bad for the environment, it's bad -- very bad -- for the health of the people who are exposed to it. A new study, based on a door-to-door survey, found that in communities exposed to this type of mining, cancer rates were twice as high as in communities that weren’t exposed. That's after controlling for all of those other cancer-causing factors: age, sex, smoking, occupation, etc.
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Once and for all, do cell phones cause cancer?
Maybe. The World Health Organization has released a report [PDF] on the connections between cell phone use and cancer. It concluded that cell phones are a "possible" carcinogen, and there was much out-freaking. But what does this really mean? It does not, it turns out, mean that cell phones definitely or even likely cause cancer. It […]
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Cancer is now the leading cause of death in China
As China’s pollution soars, so do rates of cancer. This post was written by Janet Larsen, director of research for the Earth Policy Institute. Additional resources at www.earth-policy.org. Cancer is now the leading cause of death in China. Chinese Ministry of Health data implicate cancer in close to a quarter of all deaths countrywide. As […]
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EPA puts off long-promised coal ash protections
(This post originally appeared at Facing South.) Communities imperiled by poorly managed coal ash won’t be getting help from the federal government any time soon. The Obama administration announced last week that it would not issue long-awaited federal regulations this year after all. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson shared the news in a March […]
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Hexavalent chromium pollution linked to coal ash disposal
The landmark $333 million court settlement that propelled legal researcher Erin Brockovich to environmental stardom involved the contamination of a California town’s groundwater with hexavalent chromium, a toxic compound known to cause cancer. Now the same dangerous heavy metal, usually associated with steel manufacturing and metal plating, has been discovered seeping from coal ash disposal […]
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In a hospital, against the odds, people make a good place
The chemotherapy infusion unit is a lousy place to be. Except that in very important ways, it isn't. It's like a little neighborhood where every need is accounted for, and where all your neighbors can be trusted.
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Is my smart phone making me dumb?
For years, I've talked on cell phones the old-fashioned way: with the device glued to my ear. Turns out, I've been defying the industry's own fine-print warnings. Boy, do I feel stupid!
