Is cancer man-made? Maybe.
Has cancer developed as a result of man-made factors like pollution and diet? According to researchers at the University of Manchester, probably.
Professor Rosalie David, at the Faculty of Life Sciences, said: “In industrialised societies, cancer is second only to cardiovascular disease as a cause of death. But in ancient times, it was extremely rare. There is nothing in the natural environment that can cause cancer. So it has to be a man-made disease, down to pollution and changes to our diet and lifestyle.”
The newly-published study examined volumes of medical data dating back thousands of years for evidence of cancer. The research included hundreds of mummies from around the world and found only two publications confirming microscopic amounts of cancer. The first evidence of operations done for breast and other cancers did not appear until the 17th century, around the same time as the Industrial Revolution began.
“Yet again extensive ancient Egyptian data, along with other data from across the millennia, has given modern society a clear message – cancer is man-made and something that we can and should address.”
Full story at The University of Manchester.
