Just back from Hawaii
My daughter advised me recently to stop giving people web
addresses for cancer articles because they are too busy to read them. Instead I am supposed to summarize these
articles in as few sentences as possible, using words of one syllable whenever
such words can be found. Well, nuts to
that: here is the web address of a Newsweek article on the prevalence of cancer
in the Appalachian coal country. It took
me seven minutes to read it, and I am a slow reader. Find the time.
But, if you can’t afford seven minutes, here is the gist of
the article, in table form:
1)
In Appalachia (here, specifically eastern
Kentucky) there is an abnormally high incidence rate of several cancers: lung,
colorectal, cervical (but apparently not ovarian).
2)
The causes of this cancer epidemic are: poverty,
ignorance, smoking, coal mining.
3)
Ignorance contributes to poverty, and also to
widespread smoking.
4)
Smoking and inhaling coal dust contribute to
lung cancer.
5)
Open-pit coal mining releases numerous
carcinogens into the atmosphere.
6)
Kentucky is the 45th poorest state in the Union; without coal it would be
measurably less well off.
7)
A huge percentage of the nation’s energy supply
comes from coal. This percentage has
decreased somewhat in recent decades, but not much.
8)
Renewables (solar, wind, etc.) have increased
dramatically in importance in recent years, but still furnish less than 5% of
the nation’s energy needs.
9)
Nuclear and natural gas are poised to take over
a very large portion of our energy requirements, but people are afraid of
nuclear and Democrats are opposed to pipelines.
10)
There is no easy (or even apparent) solution to
the problem of bad health in Appalachia.
Actually, some of the stuff in this table represents my
thinking and not anything in the Newsweek article. You’ll have to read the text, though, to
figure out which is which.
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