Patrolling Cancer’s Borderlands

By SIDDHARTHA MUKHERJEE
NYT

THREE recent events highlight the extraordinary task that lies ahead for cancer prevention.

First: in late May, a World Health Organization panel added cellphones to a list of things that are “possibly carcinogenic” — a category that also includes pickles and coffee.

Second: in mid-June, the National Toxicology Program, countering years of lobbying by certain industries, finally classified formaldehyde (used in plywood manufacturing and embalming) as a carcinogen.

And third: in late June, the Food and Drug Administration issued newer and more graphic warning labels for cigarette packages. These include deliberately disturbing images of a patient with mouth cancer and of a man with tobacco smoke coming out of a tracheotomy stoma.

(More here.)