WHO Has a Warning
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WHO Has a Warning
By Shane Gilreath
SCN Contributing Editor
[email protected]
For many residents of Scott County, cancer in its many forms is not a statistic. It’s real life. Men and women who deal with it on a daily basis. Local cancer rates have long been perceived as higher than state and national averages, and fears surrounding cancer and cancer causing agents have become a central part of public discussions regarding the Roberta II landfill proposal. Citizen activists who have vocally opposed the project have repeatedly raised concerns about potential contamination of air, groundwater, and streams feeding the Big South Fork watershed, which feeds into the drinking water in Kentucky, arguing that an area already burdened by health concerns shouldn’t invite additional environmental and public health risks from the waste management industries, perceived or otherwise. What can be said is that studies have long linked exposure to certain industrial pollutants, airborne particles, heavy metals, and contaminated water sources with elevated cancer risks, particularly lung, bladder, and colorectal cancers.
Those concerns are amplified by the experience of neighboring McCreary County, Kentucky, which consistently reports some of the highest cancer mortality rates in Kentucky and among the highest rates in the broader Cumberland Plateau region.
Against this already alarming backdrop comes a warning from the World Health Organization (WHO). According to a new report from the organization, global cancer cases are expected to rise dramatically over the next quarter century, climbing from approximately 20.6 million new cases today to roughly 35 million cases per year by 2050. The increase is driven largely by aging populations in North America, Europe, and East Asia, where longer lifespans provide more time for the accumulation of DNA damage caused by environmental exposures and lifestyle factors.
Cancer already claims approximately 10 million lives worldwide each year, making it the second leading cause of death globally. In the United States alone, the National Cancer Institute estimates there will be roughly two million new cancer diagnoses and more than 626,000 deaths from the disease in 2026.
WHO also warns that cancer’s financial burden will continue to grow, both for individuals and for governments, a discouraging statistic for an area, like Scott County, already listed as distressed. The United States spent nearly $209 billion on cancer care in 2020, a figure expected to rise dramatically as newer and more sophisticated treatments become the common treatment.
While nearly four in ten cancers are linked to preventable causes such as tobacco use, obesity, physical inactivity, and poor diet, WHO officials increasingly point to air pollution and environmental contamination as emerging concerns, not exactly good news to an area that’s been battling a proposed landfill for more than a year.
“Cancer prevention must remain a political priority,” said Dr. Elisabete Weiderpass from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, warning that progress in reducing cancer rates has been slower than the industry had hoped as environmental risks and lifestyle choices continue to evolve and impact diagnoses.
