3 ms·

> Millennials born in 1990—at the peak of the generation—are twice as likely to develop colon cancer as Baby Boomers born in 1950. I understand this is not nec

> Millennials born in 1990—at the peak of the generation—are twice as likely to develop colon cancer as Baby Boomers born in 1950. I understand this is not necessarily the point of the article, but how is this not considered a massive crisis? I have heard this stat mentioned before but never with much urgency or impetus to determine the cause of what appears to be a massive health crisis introduced in fairly young generation. Is it our diet? It's hard to imagine that millennial diets are that much different than what was/is eaten by older generations. Certainly older generations also had their own major carcinogenic lifestyle factors to contend with in terms of smoking and chemical exposure.

jseliger 2y ago
but how is this not considered a massive crisis Base rate up but total numbers still low. Google says 150k people/year (of all ages) get colorectal cancer, out of 333.3 million people.
floxy 2y ago
Isn't a lot of it HPV? Should be interesting to see the trend with HPV vaccines becoming widespread. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/infectious-agents/hpv-and-cancer https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/i...
jerlam 2y ago
It can be a crisis but there's no clear cause and thus, no clear action. The large amount of possible causes is leading many people to jump onto any possible theory - from processed foods, air quality, plastic containers, vague notions of "toxins", vaccines, etc. And this leads to companies taking advantage by implying their competitor's products are bad (eg: Goop) but with little scientific backing. So it's getting hard to know the difference between scientific evidence and advertising. California has a law on the books passed all the way in 1986 (Prop 65) which requires labeling of any toxic substance that can cause cancer or birth defects. It seems like everything has a Prop 65 warning on it, it's not quite possible to avoid it.

jseliger 2y ago

but how is this not considered a massive crisis Base rate up but total numbers still low. Google says 150k people/year (of all ages) get colorectal cancer, out of 333.3 million people.

floxy 2y ago

Isn't a lot of it HPV? Should be interesting to see the trend with HPV vaccines becoming widespread. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/infectious-agents/hpv-and-cancer https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/i...

jerlam 2y ago

It can be a crisis but there's no clear cause and thus, no clear action. The large amount of possible causes is leading many people to jump onto any possible theory - from processed foods, air quality, plastic containers, vague notions of "toxins", vaccines, etc. And this leads to companies taking advantage by implying their competitor's products are bad (eg: Goop) but with little scientific backing. So it's getting hard to know the difference between scientific evidence and advertising. California has a law on the books passed all the way in 1986 (Prop 65) which requires labeling of any toxic substance that can cause cancer or birth defects. It seems like everything has a Prop 65 warning on it, it's not quite possible to avoid it.