Climate change may increase cancer rates among women, research finds
The incidence of cancer in particular is rising in the US Young and middle-aged womanthe diagnosis of cancer has surpassed that of men. According to the American Cancer Society, women under the age of 50 are almost twice as likely to develop cancer than men of the same age. Latest Cancer Statistics Report– And the gap has grown since the early 2000s.
Experts say there are likely multiple factors behind the growing cancer rates among young adults. Pediatric bacteria exposure and Ultra-processed food. New research shows another monumental perpetrator, climate change, especially for women.
New research published in the journal Public Health Frontierresearchers found that climate change, or long-term changes in temperature and weather patterns driven primarily by fossil fuel burning, lies behind the increased cancer rates and deaths among women in the Middle East and North Africa.
“As temperatures rise, so does cancer mortality among women, especially with regard to ovarian and breast cancer.” press release. “The increase per degree of temperature rise is modest, but the cumulative public health impact is significant.”
This study contains data from 17 Middle Eastern and North African countries, the most vulnerable to warming temperatures (including Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Syria, Tunisia, and Arab Arab Emirates among women. They looked at the prevalence and mortality rates of breast, ovarian, cervical and uterine cancer, and compared the data with changes in temperature between 1998 and 2019.
They found that the prevalence of different cancers increased from 107 to 280 cases per 100,000 for each additional Celsius, with the highest cases of ovarian cancer and fewer breast cancer. Mortality rates more than doubled the deaths of 160 to 332 deaths per 100,000 people per temperature rise, increasing the greatest elevation of ovarian cancer and the minimum minimum for cervical cancer.
When researchers violated the overall data by country, they found that cancer prevalence and death increased in only six countries: Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Syria. They also observed that the rise was not uniform across countries. The prevalence of breast cancer increased by 560 cases per 100,000 in Qatar, and 330 cases in Bahrain. Researchers point out that the rate increases are small, but statistically significant enough to suggest that cancer risk and mortality increases significantly and increases over time.
How does climate change affect cancer rates?
As a result of climate change, Americans have witnessed hotter summers, mild winters, changing patterns of rain and snowfall, and more extreme weather events such as record heat waves and catastrophic hurricanes. Environmental Protection Agency.
Furthermore, climate change is known to cause and exacerbate health problems worldwide. World Health Organization (Who). Polluted air, water and soil due to increased fossil fuels and increased high temperatures caused by global warming directly degrade health, but natural disasters exacerbated by climate change lead to chronic stress, reduced mental health and reduced social support, depleting healthcare infrastructure and access.
Climate change also allows people to be exposed to environmental toxins and are less likely to receive rapid diagnosis and treatment, particularly in developing countries, which can employ people who are more vulnerable to cancer outbreaks, especially in developing countries.
“The temperature rise can act through multiple pathways,” said Sungsoo Chun, co-author at American University in Cairo. “It can increase exposure to known carcinogens, disrupt health care delivery, and even affect biological processes at the cellular level. These mechanisms can increase cancer risk over time.”
As Chun pointed out, several factors were able to tailor these rates to each other. For example, higher levels of carcinogenic air pollution can lead to parallel increases in heat.
And according to Chun, women are left physiologically vulnerable to climate-related health risks.
“This is exacerbated by inequality that limits access to healthcare,” she explained in a press release. “Allied women face increased risks as they are at risk of their environment and are unable to access early screening and treatment services.”
While some could argue that better cancer screening leads to a higher prevalence rate, researchers said improvements in screening should result in death as early-stage cancer is easier to treat. However, with both prevalence and mortality rates rising, researchers believe that climate-related risks are drivers and should consider climate-related risks in public health plans.
“This study cannot establish a direct causal relationship,” Matalia said. “While managing GDP per capita, other unmeasured factors may contribute. Nevertheless, the consistent associations observed across multiple countries and cancer types provide a compelling basis for further investigation.”
More information about cancer:
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- Truth about CT scans: A general health check could promote 103,000 cancer casesresearch warning
- Can sunscreen give you cancer? What experts want you to know
- The best diet to reduce the risk of prostate cancerAccording to experts
This story was originally introduced Fortune.com