Likening bowel cancer to a terrorist attack upon society really is hitting the population below the belt; it would seem each risk to the daily grind of life is amplified by whatever organisation is pushing their barrow that week. It would seem wether we are feeding our faces at fundraising dinners or out puffing against heart disease we are continually being bombarded with the negative.
Truth V's Hype
Do the risks really justify the means? Melanoma kills around one thousand people a year, is the tenth most common form of skin cancer and the deadliest but also has the highest 5 year survival rate compared with other cancers for both men and women. In 5th place lung cancer, killing 7,000 people annually 90% of those cancers related to tobacco. Bowel cancer accounts for 10% of all deaths from invasive cancers resulting in 3,806 deaths in 2006. In 2005 breast cancer killed 2,683 people, conversely the number one killer, cardiovascular disease was responsible for 34% of all Australian deaths in 2004,not only did CVD kill 47,637 individuals it also sucked up 5.4 billion health care dollars.
The Facts
The International agency of research in cancer asserted that 80% to 90% of all human cancers are determined environmentally and thus theoretically avoidable, CVD in large is also avoidable. So are the terrorist of the medical fraternity and their advertisements really living up to the hype or are they just not letting the truth get in the way of a good story?
