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Why Are More Young People Getting Colon Cancer?
20 Plays16 days ago
Chadwick Boseman tragically died at the age of 42 from a case of aggressive colon cancer. Worryingly, he was not an isolated case but a part of a wider trend of younger and younger people getting diagnosed with cancer, especially colon cancer.
Although cancer usually presents in older people, since about the 1960s younger and younger cases have started appearing with increasing frequency. At the same time, the global production of plastic has multiplied since... around 1960.
Today, in the US, we consume about 18$ worth of pennies in microplastics every year. As concerning as it is, we still do not understand the true mechanics behind this phenomenon. Research is still needed.
Meanwhile, instead of focusing on pressing public health issues such as this, our administration is choosing to funnel funding into wars, surveillance, and the pockets of their rich buddies.
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Transcript
Rising Early-Onset Colon Cancer
00:00:00
Speaker
We are seeing aggressive colon cancers occurring in people under the age of 50 at increasing rates nationwide. People who were born before 1960 seem not to have the same kind of risk and no one knows why. As people think about this, they have also noticed that there has been a dramatic increase in the production of plastic since about 1960.
00:00:25
Speaker
No one expected that the Black Panther would die, but that's exactly what happened. Chadwick Boseman, who played the Black Panther, the popular superhero from the Marvel movies, died in 2020 at the age of only 43 of an aggressive colon cancer. This was shocking because that man was so healthy, so muscular, and so obviously strong and youthful and had no obvious exposures that it made no sense at all that he would
Chadwick Boseman's Impact on Awareness
00:00:54
Speaker
die of cancer. We all appreciate that cancer is by far a disease of aging. So people who have reached the age of 60, 70, 80 have much higher rates of cancer of all kinds of types like breast cancer, colon cancer, pancreatic cancer. These tend to be much more strongly associated with age. There are some acute leukemias that are rare and seen in children, but by and large, most solid tumors occur in adults who are close to retirement age or older. So Chadwick at the age of 43 was completely the wrong category. This is the wrong person to have a colon cancer diagnosis and then to die of it. Shocking. So people have been scratching their heads about it and his untimely death really raised the alarm because he was not alone.
Environmental Factors Post-1960
00:01:39
Speaker
Actually, we are seeing aggressive colon cancers occurring in people under the age of 50 at increasing rates nationwide. And ah to be honest, we do not know why. The ah concern has been that um it seems to be a cohort effect. And by that, I mean people of a certain age seem to be at higher risk. And so in this case, it's people who are born in 1960 or later have a particular risk for these aggressive colon cancers because of the types of cancer and the location in the colon. And people who were born before 1960 not to have the same kind of risk. and so that's the nature of the cohort. So it's younger people and no one knows why, although it suggests something environmental or lifestyle related. As people think about this, they have also noticed that there has been a dramatic increase in the production of plastic since about 1960. By plastic, I mean all kinds of packaging materials, polypropylene, polyethylene, polystyrene, styrofoam chips in your packing material, the glasses that you take carry out liquids in everything.
00:02:38
Speaker
And when these things end up in landfill or they end up discarded, they break down and get into smaller and smaller pieces. And then microscopic and sub-microscopic particles um that are called microplastics. These things are so small that they can be taken up by cells. They are smaller than cells. And so there's some concern that we are being exposed to these in the air, but also in our diet. They're just everywhere in the food chain. And that there's been an estimate that at the higher end, we are consuming as much as five grams a day of microplastics.
00:03:07
Speaker
5 grams is the weight of a US nickel. It's substantial. And over the course of a year, that represents nearly $18, more than $18 worth of nickels in weight of microplastics that you're just eating. Nobody knows what they do.
The Role of Microplastics in Health
00:03:20
Speaker
There's a lot of research that's beginning and has been ongoing lately to ask when these things are in cells, what do they do? Do they interfere with the immune system? do they Are they toxic?
00:03:29
Speaker
Are they just a dead weight? How do cells get rid of them? Many of these things we don't know, but it's a topic for really active research. So watch this space. We don't understand what's happening here, but the increase in cases is real and it's occurring in younger people, these aggressive colon cancers, and we do not know why.
00:03:48
Speaker
So at the moment, it's simply an association with microplastics. I'm not saying they're the cause of everything, but circumstantially, the evidence is is not good. I mean, it's it's remarkably worrisome. So molecular studies and model studies are going to be necessary to help us understand what what's actually going on, what are the possible targets of these microplastics. And are they all alike? Is a breakdown of a polypropylene bottle the same as a polystyrene
Funding and Research Needs for Microplastic-Cancer Links
00:04:12
Speaker
packing chip? Or do they have different biological effects because these are actually different chemicals? Or in the course of the breakdown, their are exposure to UV light from the sun or whatever in a landfill, does that change them into some more toxic particle? Maybe, and some more than others, nobody knows. But it's an intriguing topic for research and funding is required for this. So if somebody could please write to NIH and to the National Cancer Institute,
00:04:35
Speaker
and to your representatives and explain that this is an urgent topic for research that is underfunded. Maybe they can, you know, stop being such idiots and fund cancer research properly because this is an emerging and and very serious problem and research is needed because we don't understand
00:04:59
Speaker
You've been listening to The Fifth Column, a series of podcasts documenting the intersecting stresses of our time. I'm Gerry Dennis. Please tune in again soon.