"Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide: it accounted for 7.4 million deaths, around 13% of all deaths, in 2004" (World Health Organisation).

Yet only 5 to 10% of cancers are hereditary, the others are due to environmental factors which can be avoided. The main risk factors are tobacco, alcohol, certain infectious agents (viruses), occupational cancers, being overweight or obese and a sendentary lifestyle.1

Each year the number of reported cancers increases whilst billions are invested in cancer research… in mice.

Prevention, epidemiological studies and research based on human data would be far more helpful.

There are 3 carcinogenic categories.

• Physical: such as ultraviolet radiation, and ionizing radiation.
• Chemical: such as asbestos, the components of tobacco smoke, aflatoxin (a food contaminant) and arsenic (polluting drinking water).
• Biological: such as infections due to viruses, bacteria or parasites.

A recent study, published in the British Journal of Cancer 2 and part of a long international study on cancer and nutrition, has revealed new links between meat consumption and cancer.

Tobacco

Everything currently known about the damage caused by tobacco comes from epidemiological (population based) and clinical research. Despite a first publication in 1950 3, relating smoking to lung cancer, the tobacco industry denied the harmful effects of their products. Animal testing over a period of decades has involved forcing mice, dogs and monkeys to inhale smoke without actually causing a cancer.

Based on these results, the population blithely continued smoking for the next 20 years.

Quote by the president of Phillip Morris (giving you an insight into his ulterior motives): "No clearcut case against cigarette smoking has been made despite millions spent on research. . . The longer these tests go on, the better our case becomes."4

Even today, cigarette manufacturers are still forcing animals to smoke tobacco! According to Philip Morris, this isn’t to demonstrate a link between smoking and cancer but to find find less toxic substances.5 The deadly and fraudulent activities of cigarette manufacturers seem more likely to be searching for more addictive substances.

In Belgium, 756.715 animals died in 2006 due to cruel and pointless experiments in laboratories.
The vast majority of smokers are surprised and appalled by these tests.

If you are one of these people, and do not wish to support and condone animal cruelty, there are a number of brands that don’t test chemical substances on animals; Natural American Spirit, Pueblo et Fleur de Pays.

• 1. Causes of cancer in France - September 2007
• 2. British Journal of Cancer (2009) 101, 192 – 197
• 3. Smoking and carcinoma of the lung. Preliminary report 1950 (Doll R, Hill AB. - Bull World Health Organ. 1999;77(1):84-93)
• 4. 1968 statement by Philip Morris President George Weissman, to Dun's Review (R. Kluger, Ashes to Ashes, p. 325)- http://www.tobacco.org/Documents/documentquotes.html
• 5. Animal testing (Philip Morris International)