Cancer Deaths Declining
The number of cancer deaths in the U.S. dropped from 557,271 in 2002 to 556,902 in 2003. The reduction is small, but it is the first time since 1930 that the rate has decreased. For more than the last decade, health s
tatisticians have charted annual drops of about one percent in the cancer death rate - calculated as the number of deaths per 100,000 people. But the actual number of cancer deaths still rose each year because the growth in total population outpaced the falling death rate.
Death rates have fallen for lung, breast, prostate and colorectal cancers, which together account for 51 percent of all U.S. cancer deaths. The breast cancer death rate has been dropping about two percent annually since 1990. The colon and rectum cancer death rate also has been shrinking by about two percent since 1984. Decreases in death rate for these cancers are attributed to better detection methods and treatment. The death rate for prostate cancer has dropped by four percent annually since 1994, though the reasons for that are still being studied. The lung cancer death rate for men, dropping about two percent annually since 1991, is because of reductions in smoking. The lung cancer rate for women has held steady, a sign that reflects a lag in the practice among women. The number of deaths for this group actually rose by 409 individuals from 2002 to 2003. (Gainesville Sun, 2/9/06).
Editor’s note: Death by cancer is often an endpoint used by activist groups as “proof” that pesticides are endangering our lives. While the above statistics don’t address pesticide exposure directly, it would seem that the results of this analysis would have been different if activist claims were true.
