We are rapidly approaching what is widely accepted as an irreversible tipping point for climate change. The impending threat of this human driven disaster to our health is monumental and was captured in the aptly titled report by The Lancet and the University College London Institute for Global Health Commission; Climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st century (1).
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Blog Search - "Health & our environment "
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Posted on Mon, 12 Oct 09
A healthy neighbourhood cuts diabetes risk
The residential environment we live in may have a large impact on our health. A unique study examining the availability of neighbourhood resources has found that accessibility to healthy food such as fruit and vegetables and greater opportunities to be physically active is associated with a reduced risk for type 2 diabetes (1). With the prevalence of type 2 diabetes expected to rise to 366 million by 2030 this finding has important implications (2).
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Posted on Mon, 12 Oct 09
Mobile phones and brain cancer
Whether or not cell phones are linked to the development of brain tumours continues to be a hotly debated topic but this really boils down to which scientific reports you read, those funded by the mobile phone industry (which report that mobile phones protect against brain tumours) or those that have been independently funded (which report an increased risk for brain tumour in mobile phone users). As was the case for tobacco it may be that industry funded science is being used to delay action against the potential danger of mobile phones (1).
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Posted on Sun, 11 Oct 09
Electric light may cause cancer
Night is no longer dark in the modern world, and the Milky Way has disappeared. Electric light has benefits but there are also a few detriments. These are [1] loss of the night sky, [2] wasted energy, [3] harm to animal and plant life, [4] and perhaps increases in some severe human maladies such as cancers of breast and prostate. These are the words of Professor Richard Stevens, Cancer Epidemiologist. In the 1970s Stevens began to question why cancer rates dramatically rise as societies industrialise, a series of clues around this time led him to the propose the theory in 1987 that electric lighting at night disrupts natural human circadian rhythms causing changes in hormones that may be linked to breast cancer risk (1-2). The theory that light at night is linked to breast cancer, and perhaps others, is now well supported by evidence.
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