28% increase in deaths from chronic bronchitis in women
Improving their chances: more years ahead for young Swiss as age of death rises
NEUCHATEL, SWITZERLAND – The average age of death is rising in Switzerland: 74.4 for men and 82.1 years for women.
The Swiss Statistical Office’s new figures on mortality for 2009, the most recent calculations, show 15,000 fewer deaths in the under-80 population than in 1970, with 62,476 deaths in 2009. Over age 80 the number of deaths has increased by 2.2, while the population has increased threefold.
Dementia diagnosed more easily and earlier, lung cancer leads cancer deaths
Cardiovascular disease, cancer and dementia are the three main causes of death overall, but dementia as a cause of death is on the rise, as the aging population increases, the figures show.
The number of deaths from dementia as an initial illness has doubled in 10 years and the mortality rate has risen from 20 to 28 deaths per 10,000, a rise explained in part by earlier and better diagnoses, according to the statistical office.
Cardiovascular disease accounted for 36 percent of all deaths, cancer 26 percent and dementia about 7 percent.
Lung cancer accounts for nearly one-fifth of all cancer deaths and it remains by far the most prevalent form of cancer in Switzerland.
Respiratory diseases including chronic bronchitis are the fourth cause of death, with a startling figure: the number of deaths among women from chronic bronchitis rose 28 percent in the past 10 years, while it dropped 12 percent for men.
When a younger population is looked at, the figures show cancer as the leading cause of premature death, followed by accidents, then cardiovascular disease.
AUSTRIA – Colorectal cancer, the fourth leading cancer killer worldwide, advances faster in men, therefore, men should get their first colonoscopy to screen for the disease at age 45, five years earlier than the current recommendation, said a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
The study carried out in Austria between 2007 and 2010 found “a significantly higher rate of these lesions among men compared with women in all age groups, suggesting that male sex constitutes an independent risk factor for colorectal carcinoma.”
It concludes that screening guidelines may need to be adjusted for sex and age. Currently, the age for referring patients to screening colonoscopy is independent of sex and usually recommended to be 50 years.
Link to: San Francisco Chronicle, JAMA
©2011 Globe Cartoon / Patrick Chappatte
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – To say Monday 31 May was a day that went up in smoke for the The World Health Organization (WHO) would be an exaggeration, but media attention for its annual “world no tobacco day” appeared to take second place to cells phones and cancer. Global media instead reacted with an instant buzz of headlines Tuesday to a WHO press release entitled “Radiofrequency electromagnetic fields are possibly carcinogenic”.
A working group that met at the International Agency for Cancer Research (IACR) in Lyon from 24-31 May concluded that cell phones should be given a new cancer-risk classification, saying this is “based on an increased risk for glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer associated with wireless phone use”.
The group noting that with five billion phones in use globally, this is a potential public health risk that warrants more study.
Switzerland has nine million cell phones.
The 31 scientists from 14 countries were meeting to assess potential carcinogenic hazards from this exposure. Dr Jonathan Samet from the University of Southern California in the US, who chaired the group, said in a statement that “the evidence, while still accumulating, is strong enough to support a conclusion and the 2B classification. The conclusion means that there could be some risk, and therefore we need to keep a close watch for a link between cell phones and cancer risk.”
The IACR’s classifications:
| Group 1 | Carcinogenic to humans | 107 agents | |
| Group 2A | Probably carcinogenic to humans | 59 | |
| Group 2B | Possibly carcinogenic to humans | 266 | |
| Group 3 | Not classifiable as to its carcinogenicity to humans | 508 | |
| Group 4 | Probably not carcinogenic to humans | 1 |
The WHO cites growing concern in recent years over possible cell phone and cancer links. It pointed out that the jury is not in yet on links, and that more research needs to be done.
“The evidence was reviewed critically, and overall evaluated as being limited among users of wireless telephones for glioma and acoustic neuroma, and inadequate to draw conclusions for other types of cancers. The evidence from occupational and environmental exposures … was similarly judged inadequate. The working group did not quantitate the risk; however, one study of past cell phone use (up to the year 2004), showed a 40 percent increased risk for gliomas in the highest category of heavy users (reported average: 30 minutes per day over a 10‐year period).”
Four years of Swiss research: no clear health link but cell phones affect sleep patterns
Elisabeth Edwards, the estranged wife of former US vice-presidential candidate and presidential hopeful John Edwards, died Tuesday 7 December of breast cancer at the family home in North Carolina, in the US. John Edwards campaigned at the side of John Kerry in 2004. Elizabeth Edwards, she later said, knew before the campaign she might have cancer, but hid that possibility from her husband until the diagnosis, after the Edwards/Kerry team lost. She received treatment for the cancer, which went into remission, but returned in 2007, about the time her husband began a presidential campaign in 2008, but bowed out when it became clear he could not compete with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Elisabeth Edwards was diagnosed at that point with a treatable but not curable cancer. The couple later became estranged over revelations that he had had an affair, and then that he had fathered a child, allegations he initially vehemently denied but later acknowledged. Elisabeth Edwards, a lawyer, turned her attention to working as an advocate for the poor and fighting for health care reform.
Asacusa experiment, Cern, July 2009 (photo, Cern)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The mystery of what ever happened to antimatter, which has long puzzled scientists, has moved a step closer to being solved. Researchers involved in the Asacusa experiment at Cern (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva have succeeded in producing significant numbers of antihydrogen atoms in flight.
Antimatter is the opposite of matter, which is the material that makes up our world. Cern notes in a statement that “matter and its counterpart are identical except for opposite charge, and they annihilate when they meet. At the Big Bang, matter and antimatter should have been produced in equal amounts. However, we know that our world is made up of matter: antimatter seems to have disappeared. To find out what has happened to it, scientists employ a range of methods to investigate whether a tiny difference in the properties of matter and antimatter could point towards an explanation.”
One of these is a Cern-developed trap called Cusp that uses a combination of magnetic fields to bring antiprotons and positrons together. They form antihydrogen atoms, referred to by Cern as “this rarest of atoms”.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Friday often brings some of the world’s stranger bits of news, from amusing to weird to hard to believe:
- Young people who are not yet of voting age, in Geneva, Switzerland erected the first new and relatively small minaret, defying the 29 November popular vote that bans them: in the Place Neuve, out of cardboard. Institute of Race Relations, UK (Ed. note: here is a design for homemade miniature cardboard minarets, in case they suddenly sell out in Swiss shops)
- Manchester, England: a 29-year-old man was shot dead when he and friends were confronted outside the money exchange where he worked. Police say he was robbed for cash and for his laptop. A 20-year-old is in custody. Guardian, UK
- A heavily drunk man in the Perm Territory, in the Russian Urals, was saved from flames by his cat. He fell asleep with a cigarette in his hand and when the apartment burst into flames his cat leaped onto him, scratching his face until the man came to and phoned the fire department. Ria Novosti, Russia
- Read more…
Title: Paddle for cancer dragon boat festival
Location: Lac de joux, Jura
Link out: Click here
Description: Join the 3rd annual Paddle for Cancer Dragonboat Festival at L’Abbaye on Lac de Joux.
Date: 06 Sep 2009
Updated 17:00 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Edward Kennedy, US senator from Massachusetts, 77, has died of brain cancer, diagnosed in May 2008. He was one of the longest-serving senators and a leader of liberal Democrats. Reuters describes him as a “consummate dealmaker.” Kennedy was also known as the head of the large political clan of Kennedys after the deaths of his older brothers: Joe, who died during the second world war, and two brothers who were assassinated: US President John F Kennedy and Robert Kennedy, attorney general who later ran for president.
Tributes from around the world began to pour in within hours, among them this one from head of the Geneva-based UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees), António Guterres:
Convicted fraudster Bernard Madoff, widely reported 24 August to be dying of cancer in prison, is not being treated for cancer and is ot!! close to death, US Bureau of Prisons officials have told Reuters.
Geneva, Switzerland (RSR, Fre) – RSR reports that the president of ARFEC-APG, a charity that helps families of children with cancer, is wanted by the group to answer questions about CHF1 million that appears to be missing. The man, whose name is not given by the radio station, is reported to be living in Tunisia.
Title: Theatre – The Amazon Cancer Warriors-Hommage to Courage
Location: Bursins, Vaud, Salle Communale (with one night at La Madeleine in Geneva)
Link out: Click here
Description: A play in French by local writer Mary Weed Pickens based on her own, current experience with acute leukemia. Proceeds go to help families with cancer.
Start Date: 19 Mar 2009 (18 March in Geneva)
Start Time: 19:00
End Date: 20 Mar 2009
Zug, Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre) – The Animal Oncology and Imaging Center (Ger) in Zug opened 4 October and provides a first in Switzerland: a linear accelerator reactor for cancer therapy. The clinic has specialists in several fields, including internal medicine, surgery, dermatology and ophthalmology.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss federal government and cantons have agreed to continue covering the bulk of the cost of vaccinations to protect against cervical cancer for teenage girls, despite the relatively high cost of the HPV vaccine, reports RSR (Fre). Read more…
