If ACSH had a nickel for every time an activist railed against the "cancer epidemic," well, we wouldn't have to ask you to contribute to our work.
Look no further than the Teresa Heinz-funded anti-chemical documentary, Rachael's Daughters: Searching for the Causes of Breast Cancer, "the story of seven women, all breast-cancer victims or survivors, working to unearth the causes of the breast-cancer epidemic."
So today's headline "Cancer Deaths Down in U.S., Report Finds" should come as a major surprise.
The report, a joint effort by the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries, tells us that Cancer rates are falling — even as we are living to an older age, which would tend to increase the likelihood of eventually getting some form of cancer. And as diagnostic methods improve dramatically, you would think we'd be finding more cancers. So the drop in both cancer rates and cancer deaths is probably understated.
And no, Sam Epstein, David Fenton, Michael Jacobson, Sen. Barbara Boxer, plaintiff's attorneys, and overzealous regulators: this good news does not come because of your efforts, it happened despite them.
