Microplastic pollution a cause of rising rates of cancer in young people?

This disturbing Financial Times article👇 asks if the rising rates of cancer in young people could be caused by #microplastic #pollution?

Recent scientific research is showing that cancer may no longer be "a disease of old age", given the rates of several cancers are rising faster among the young than among the old. As the FT reports, "Scientists at the American Cancer Society have confirmed the trend across a wider range of cancers, with statistics broadly suggesting that a Gen X or Millennial is more likely to develop certain types of the disease than her Baby-boomer parents."

While known cancer risk factors such as sedentary behaviour, changes in diet, rising levels of obesity and diabetes, may account for some of this increase, the presence of cancer patients in Harvard University’s Cancer Institute clinic who are young, fit and healthy, has led the scientists to look for environmental carcinogens capable of affecting entire generations.

The FT journalist, Anjana Ahuja goes on "Last year, New Zealand researchers showed that microplastics, now found everywhere and ingested from infancy onwards, could disrupt the gut lining. The prevalence of microplastic pollution since the 1960s — the tiny plastic particles come from consumer products and the breakdown of industrial waste — has the right timeline and might explain the compounding effect between generations, but it needs further investigation."

This tells us why the current negotiations of a #UN #Plastics #Treaty really, really matter!

Those negotiations will come to a head in Busan, Korea in November at #INC-5, when hopefully, Global Rules that seek to address problematic and avoidable plastic products, chemicals of concern and product design will be approved.

This includes Microplastics, and Pinovo applauds the fact that Microplastic Pollution is now firmly “on the agenda” in the UN Plastic Treaty negotiations.

https://on.ft.com/4gp0efo​

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