I presume folks used to die -- more frequently than we do now -- of illnesses other than cancer.
Current cancer rates for women over fifty are already fearsomely high, and as an anti-chemical gloom-and-doomer I'm expecting those rates will skyrocket as those of us in our forties reach our fifties and sixties -- since most of us were raised eating chemical compounds for breakfast.
I'll be happy to be wrong.
cheers, Joanna
At 02:51 23-01-01, you wrote:
>Joanna Sheldon wrote:
>
>>It occurs to me to wonder why we're surprised the cancer rates are so high.
>
>Mainly because people live so much longer than they used to (and not just
>in rich countries). I never understood this kind of argument. All evidence
>is that people are not only living longer, they're staying healthy and
>active longer too. U.S. life expectancy (at birth) rose from 73.3 in 1977
>to 76.5 in 1997 - more than three years, a nontrivial amount. It was 69.5
>in 1957, and 60.0 in 1937. If we're poisoning ourselves so profoundly, why
>aren't life expectancies falling?
>
>Doug
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