(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Do you think you know what causes cancer? Results
of a new survey show you probably don’t!
Results from the survey by the International Union of Against Cancer (UICC)
indicate most people have an exaggerated idea of environmental factors that may
cause cancer, while minimizing the influence of behavioral risk factors that are
well established as cancer risks.
The biggest misconceptions? Forty-two percent of people living in high-income
countries do not believe drinking alcohol increases one’s risk of cancer when in
fact, cancer risk increases with alcohol intake. Stress and air pollution both
scored higher (57 percent and 78 percent respectively) as perceived cancer risk
factors than alcohol intake did. Stress, however, is not a recognized risk
factor and air pollution is only a mild contributor.
In general, study authors say, survey participants more readily accepted things
out of their control (like air pollution) as greater cancer risk factors as
opposed to things that are in their control (like being overweight).
“We know that people need to be given a reason why they should change,” David
Hill, M.D., director of the Cancer Council Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, was
quoted as saying. “They need to be shown how to change; they need to be given
resources or support to change; they need to remember to change and they need
positive reinforcement for changing.”
SOURCE: International Union of Against Cancer
