In the most recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Walter C. Willett of the Harvard School of Public Health, along with two doctors from other institutions, countered claims made by Dr. Willett’s HSPH colleague Dr. David C. Christiani in an article asserting that environmental factors account for 85 to 95 percent of cancers. Dr. Willett and his colleagues are especially concerned that Dr. Christiani did not even acknowledge that smoking, inactivity, and being overweight account for a substantial amount of the “environmental” factors, leaving the reader to believe that the bulk of the carcinogens were industrial chemicals.
We at ACSH couldn’t have said it any better ourselves, and we encourage readers to take a look at the whole of Dr. Willett’s letter.