SOC 105 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Canadian Cancer Society, Time Point, Population Ageing
21 Sep 2016
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The Social Bases of Cancer Reading Notes
The Scope of the Problem:
• 1965: 50% of Canadians over the age of 14 smoked daily or occasionally
• More than a quarter of all deaths among Canadians over the age of 35 are due to tobacco
o Tobacco kills half of all lifetime users
• 1971: U.S President Richard Nixon declared “War on Cancer”
o Campaign mobilized educators, researchers, physicians and public health officers
in North America to devote more energy and resources to fight the disease
• Cancer incidence rate: the number of cancer cases per 100 000 people
o Enables us to compare the number of cancer cases among the same number of
people despite the population increasing as a whole
• Age-Standardized Incidence Rate: remove the effect of population aging from the
comparison
o Manipulate the data so that age distribution of the population at a later time point
is the same as at the earlier time point
o Ensures any change we observe is not due to population aging
The Genetic Revolution:
• The first draft of the Human genome was created: genetic testing would soon be available
for the 25 leading causes of illness and death
o Allows doctors to identify and treat people with predispositions to particular
diseases before signs are visible
• Primary focus: common genetic variants, hoped to find association between specific
genetic variants and particular diseases (used to to predict disease susceptibility)
o Discovery: people with the variant never developed cancer, and people without
the variant did
• Genetic mutations cause ALL cancers
• 90% of Environmental factors such as exposure to what we eat, drink, smoke, natural and
medication radiation, drugs, socioeconomic factors, and substances in air, water, and soil
affects susceptibility
The Cancer Paradox: Although we know how to reduce the cancer incidence rate drastically,
we have not been able to move vigorously on this front
• Structure of our society makes it difficult for us to eliminate offending substances
• People must stop using tobacco and change their diets to adhere scientific
recommendations
• Overweight, red and processed meat consumption (frequently), and excessive alcohol
consumption increase the risk of getting cancer
• Eight General Recommendations
o Stay lean with normal range of weight
o Be moderately active
o Avoid high-calorie foods
o Eat foods of non-starchy plant origin
o Limit consumption of red/processed meat to once a week
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o Limit alcohol consumption to 1-2 drinks a day
o Avoid salty foods
o Do not eat moldy fruits and vegetables
o Avoid the consumption of dietary supplements
• People who KNOW of these recommendations are well educated people are more likely
to have regular physical examinations and screening procedures to detect cancer early
• People who DO NOT KNOW or fail to act on them tend to be less educated and are
more likely to smoke and lack the recommendations
o The lower a person’s education and income, the more likely they are to get cancer
o Urging them to change their diets and stop smoking has little effect due to the
conditions they live in
o Work: they are more likely to experience little control and high stress
o Home: more likely to face marital stress and divorce because of money problems
o Use alcohol and tobacco to feel better in the short term
o More likely to be exposed to carcinogens
▪ Miners, construction workers, industry workers, hairdressers, framers, etc.
o Neighbourhood: more likely to suffer relatively high exposure to air and water
pollutants that contribute to cancer risk
o Choose unhealthy foods because they are within their budget while healthy foods
are too expensive
• Industrial interests, governments and segments benefit economically from a bias
towards finding cures rather than taking preventive actions
The Alberta Oil Sands and Fort Chipewyan
• Alberta crude is more difficult to extract because of room temperature and it is mixed
with sand and clay
• Upgrading procedure: If oil is far below ground, miners inject steam so the oil sands
can be pumped to the surface
o Costly, dirty, energy and water intensive
o Creates a toxic waste sludge that is pumped into artificial lakes (tailing ponds)
• Tailing ponds which are located on both sides of the river have shifting foundations,
collapsing walls, seepage, and other problems which allow sludge to pour into the river
and leech into groundwater
o Sludge is toxic and contains dozens of known cancer causing chemicals
• Fish deformities is higher than expected and common relating to water quality
o Preston McEachern: experiments with tailings water on fish have shown serious
reproductive impacts
o Birds have increased mortality rates and plants have shown delayed germination
and lower seedling weights
• Some residents drink the untreated water, many eat local fish, veggies, berries, moose,
and deer all of which are exposed to carcinogens in the water and air
• Research: Oil sands pose a serious risk to the environment and human health
Other Cancer Hot Spots:
• Communities across Canada with dirty industries report elevated cancer incidence rates
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