There, you have it. It is extremely important to not overreact to reports of correlation without causation. A report that something is linked to cancer can be

There, you have it. It is extremely important to not overreact to reports of correlation without causation. A report that something is linked to cancer can be worrying, but is not yet enough to make inferences. Here is a list of things that are linked (correlated) to each other: * years of experience programming and a chance of getting cancer * number of births and chance of getting osteoporosis * having a surgery and dying of surgery-related complications (can't have complications if you don't have surgery) * GDP and a chance of getting diagnosed with cancer at a young age (generally, the higher GDP the higher the chance your cancer gets caught earlier or at all -- in many poor countries nobody cares what you died to) Etc.