Why do so many people get cancer now?

My father was diagnosed with cancer before I was born, after being kicked on a mole as he played football. As a young child when we still had a reasonable train network he used to head off to Cambridge for radiation treatment, often returning a week later, with burns.

The ward had a movement that indicated your prospects. I do not remember exactly how it worked now. But the further you moved, left right, front, back, or what ever it was, the less chance you had of leaving alive & even as a child, I soon worked that one out & my father died at home when I was about 8 years old.

One of the evening rituals on the Cambridge ward was a bottle of Guinness or other stout, on the NHS. Back then, it was not an uncommon thing, as Guinness helps build people up.

Now, my brother in law has Cancer & his treatment is local. No trains, no long journeys & no long stays on wards. His treatments are not even day procedures, just normal out patient. Science has moved on.

Are you sure you just weren’t feeling the radiated heat from the phone?

I don’t know about the manufacturers reducing the power output of a phone but the power is automatically adjusted according to the strength of the received signal. The closer you are to the transmitting tower the less the power put out by the phone (apart from anything else it saves battery)

It also shows why the campaigns to put the phone towers away from schools are so misguided. If you are worried about radio waves affecting children’s health then ideally the tower should be located on top of the school. Radio power is subject to the inverse square law so the power from the tower reduces dramatically the further you are away (ie double the distance then the power is only a quarter). However because of this the most intense radiation is from the phone stuck to your ear but it is much reduced (by the phone itself) the closer you are to the transmitting tower

I agree Meg!
Cancer treatments work for lots of people, although some treatments are not pleasant, and the money invested into the treatments saves many lives.
What bothers me is why so many people now get cancer? If half the population are going to get it , it would be interesting in researching what may have caused this increase!

Aww, well that’s alright then Bruce, you have single handedly figured out why mobile phones pose no risk to human health when some of the greatest scientific minds on the planet have not produced any clear evidence whether they do or don’t


Come on! That is totally disingenuous and not what I said or implied at all. I merely offered ways to mitigate danger if any exists and why the movement to ban towers near schools is misguided

It is not like you to misrepresent what someone says but that is a total misrepresentation of what I said.

Having said that there is no conclusive evidence to show mobile phones pose a threat one way or another but there has not been any surge in cancer cases matching the uptake of mobile phones.

Sorry Bruce, I was being a bit sarcastic
I’m not a conspiracy theorist but I do keep an open mind on most things and never assume that we have progressed enough to know everything about everything, and there are many things we do not understand. We have been known to find out things later down the line that we thought were safe.

Some interesting graphs here 


I quote the Queen: ‘Recollections May Vary’. :slightly_smiling_face:
People in there would never come out alive? What a load of cobblers!

You might have thought it smaller than an average sized supermarket travelling on your school bus Twink, but I can assure you it wasn’t. It was plenty big, not just one building either with other parts across the road and round the corner. I know it well having grown up around there from 1955.

Quote:
‘The Christie combined with the Holt Radium Institute to build magnificent new premises that opened in Withington in 1932. In the 1930s and onwards, Dr Ralston Paterson built a team of physicists and clinicians who turned the hospital into a world recognised centre for the treatment of cancer by radiation’.

It’s enormous because they don’t just treat patients. It does far more research and development, clinical trials, education and training. More space is needed for all that.

I agree with what’s already been said, It’s not rocket science. Past (and perhaps still) questionable working environments and materials, genetics, the sun, pollution, changes to our diet and lifestyle, chemicals in our food, the amount of radiation from many sources that we are all subjected to without realising it
 the list is endless I’m sure.
Not forgetting the sheer number of people occupying the planet are bound to make for higher figures.

I very much doubt that. They receive millions per year plus income from private patients, charitable and research organisations, donations and legacies.
It’s in our lives 24/7 asking for donations on the TV, radio, leaflets through the door, tins for donations shoved in our faces. They will never be without funding of any description, neither will heart or stroke. Similarly the same for diabetes and asthma too I suspect,

Compare that to organisations who receive very little funding or donations because they aren’t shoved in our faces 24/7.
For instance degenerative disorders with no survivable rates or no quality of life. Motor Neurone Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Huntington’s, Muscular Dystrophy, Alzheimer’s or any illness with little or no survivable rates.

As an example Motor Neuron Disease which has no quality of life once it takes over. It’s a very sad protracted living death and scandalous they have to resort to petitioning the government for funding.

Was there a need to be rude and aggressive Pesta?
The route my bus took was where the hospital was and the part I mentioned , I was told was where the patients were hospitalized. In those days they could be treated but very few survived.
I am well aware of how much work is done at the Christie now as I have been a patient there for 10 years, fortunately only an out patient but they have told me I can make an appointment anytime if I want to check anything. Over that time I have probably walked miles through the corridors to different treatment departments, like the Nuclear department, Radio therapy section, both the old & the new outpatients sections, the Chemo section and even one of the wards.
When I spoke to one of the consultants & said " I used to pass here on my school bus, back in the 60’s" he said " well there has been a lot of building since then, as I am sure you have noticed!"
I was well aware of all the current sections you mentioned as I asked what else they used the enormous building for, but I didn’t mention them because the thread was about “Why do so many people get cancer now” when we are told that 1 of every 2 people will get cancer in their life.

I’m not sure but I do know that I used to feel dizzy and unwell afterwards so I used to rarely use the mobile. It was about ten years later that I started using a mobile more regularly and that was because it was impossible not to. But when I did I noticed the new handsets did not make me feel that way. So I think the old handsets were not good for your health much as the old fluorescent striplights in offices used to make me feel unwell in the 80s and now they have some sort of healthier lighting. Photocopiers also had a smell that used to make me feel unwell. I don’t do much photocopying at all now but they have different technology now which means that office life isn’t as toxic as it used to be. When I first had an office job in the late 80s I even had to sit next to a guy who would leave his lit cigarette in an ashtray on his desk when working. We don’t realise how much has changed to make work environments healthier.

I’m not aware I was being rude or aggressive Twink.
I was pointing out your memories were off kilter, especially where you said ‘We all know people never came out alive’. I note you have now changed that to ‘but very few survived’.

I did think to add a smiley but instead I put an exclamation mark after ‘cobblers’, which should surely show I was being humorous.

But still, the fact remains, your memories were off kilter. :slightly_smiling_face:

Yes, I’ve walked miles in there too over the years.

Cancer was a very scary illness in those days & I can remember people saying about The Christie " You will never come out of there alive". It wasn’t a criticism of the hospital, but back then cancer patients expected to die . Some still do, but I am pleased to say that almost half now survive!

I have my fingers crossed :crossed_fingers:

Mags I still believe that they will find a way to beat cancer!
When I was on the Chemo section, we all knew there was a chance we would not survive but most of the patients spent time laughing & joking. One man & myself had a competition, as to who had to visit the loo the most times ( Chemo puts a lot of fluid into you body) and all the patients on the route to the loos counted with us, to make sure nobody cheated.
When the helpers brought the sandwiches round, they said we could tell there was a party going on round here, so we thought we would join you! :rofl:
Being positive won’t cure you, but it makes the journey to recovery much easier! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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I have just found this thread.
I also am a survivor of Prostate cancer that was removed 13 years ago. I was lucky that it had not spread to other parts. The only effect it has is the dingle dangle don’t dingle any more and only dangles.

A research article in the BMJ gives the following figures.

Results: In the rural area, the highest power level was used about 50% of the time, while the lowest power was used only 3% of the time. The corresponding numbers for the city area were approximately 25% and 22%. The output power distribution in all defined urban areas was similar.

Normal mobile phones only produce 2 watts of power at maximum output. Most amateurs regularly use hand radios putting out 5 watts & with much more efficient antennas, so the radiated power is higher & no evidence exists of harm within the radio amateur fraternity. The same with people who use PMR radios at work.

In the last 2 weeks I have lost a close friend and also a much loved family member to cancer. Both aged 66. Both had breast cancer some years ago and were given the all clear. One friend found it had spread to her bones and there was nothing they could do. The family member died from too much radiotherapy given years ago which weakened her heart.
4 people from my grammar school days died from cancer this year alone. i have lost count of how many people have died from cancer over the years who I know very well.
Both my parents died from cancer and both my inlaws too. My niece had breast cancer. My husband carries the BRCA gene too. Bloody depressing. :cry: