Researchers are trying to figure out what is making more young adults sick, and how to identify those at high risk
Meilin Keen was studying for the bar exam and preparing to move to New York City last June when she started throwing up blood.
Keen, 27 years old, learned days later that she has gastric cancer. She postponed the bar exam. Brain fog from chemotherapy made it hard to do her legal work.
Surgeons removed her stomach in December. Keen is coming to terms with all that means for her diet, her health, even her dating life. “That’s a fun icebreaker: I don’t have a stomach anymore,” she said.
Cancer is hitting more young people in the U.S. and around the globe, baffling doctors. Diagnosis rates in the U.S. rose in 2019 to 107.8 cases per 100,000 people under 50, up 12.8% from 95.6 in 2000, federal data show. A study in BMJ Oncology last year reported a sharp global rise in cancers in people under 50, with the highest rates in North America, Australia and Western Europe.
Doctors are racing to figure out what is making them sick, and how to identify young people who are at high risk. They suspect that changes in the way we live—less physical activity, more ultra-processed foods, new toxins—have raised the risk for younger generations.
But why now then? Teflon has been widespread since the 50s. A lot of these compounds have been around for a long time, so why is this just happening now?
Politics aside, there’s a very big scientific question here too that needs to be answered.
The cancer rates have been steadily rising since the 50s.
Is this controlled for the decrease in deaths from other causes? I know that’s a confounding variable for cancer deaths increasing in the elderly.
Yes, people living near dump sites have a significant higher increase in cancer. Also people eating sea food (PFAS accumelates in animals, especially sea food) have a significant higher rate. Also the rate of younger people having cancer is increasing, not only cancer rate.
Probably exposure in the womb
Continued growth in usage, continued growth in improper waste disposal, continued growth in the general environment, exposure over time … add a decade or two for search of these
Perfluorinated compounds do not biodegrade, and so the continued production of PFCs means more in the environment than ever before. Since we live in the environment, there are therefore more PFCs in our bodies than ever before.
It just doesn’t degrade and that is why we find them so usefull. Pfas dumped 50 years ago is still around and we just keep producing more.