The death toll from cancer is high today. The number of cancers diagnosed in Spain in 2021 is estimated to reach 276,239 cases, according to data from the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM). With the advance of climatic effects on people’s health, these figures will foreseeably increase.
Despite the published studies, the incidence of cancer due to climate change continues to be a range of study and analysis possibilities that should be addressed. For this reason, the fourth meeting ‘Greentalks’, organized by Muy Interesting and Gaceta Médica , focuses on environmental pollution and oncohematological diseases.
The virtual debate, which has the support of Fundamed and GSK, will be held at 12 in the morning, next Thursday, April 22, a date on which Earth Day is commemorated. The meeting will be broadcast online , through Muy Interesante’s Periscope platform, and on YouTube.
The conference will address the different views of multidisciplinary experts to analyze issues such as the European Plan against Cancer, carcinogenesis of environmental origin, international legislation or the perspective of scientific societies in this field.
Risk factors associated with cancer
Forest fires, poor air quality, rising temperatures or extreme weather events associated with climate change are some of the causes. But the problem does not end there, external climatic events also affect cancer survival, since they can prevent access to care for this pathology.
This is indicated by a study published in ‘ A Cancer Journal for Clinicians ‘ of the American Cancer Society (ACS, for its acronym in English). For these reasons, experts encourage mitigating and analyzing the effects of climate change, due to the collateral benefits it can cause on people’s health.
This prevention perspective has recently been analyzed at the European level. Recently, several specialists intervened in the Special Committee to Fight Cancer (BECA) of the European Commission to highlight the negative effects of elements such as radiation, pesticides or air pollution.
The possibility of dealing with 5.21 million cancers in 2040, more than 100 million new cancers, is a possibility that specialists highlighted during the BECA.
At this point, the fight against cancer becomes even more a fundamental pillar of the health prevention protocols of the future, now, and increasingly, with a
environmental approach that will backbone the next analyzes. For this, the fourth Greentalks has the participation of Alberto Ruano Raviña, professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the University of Santiago de Compostela; Jesús García Foncillas, director of the OncoHealth Oncology Institute and head of the Medical Oncology Service of the Jiménez Díaz Foundation; Laura Mezquita, member of the SEOM Cancer and Work Working Group; Raquel Yotti, director of the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII) and Guillermo de Juan, vice president and director of Institutional Relations and Communication of GSK Spain.
