Ecoscience

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Paul Ehrlich (Bing Professor of Population Studies and Professor of Biological Sciences, Stanford University) and Anne Ehrlich (Senior Research Associate, Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford) are familiar names to ecologists and environmentalists everywhere. As well they should be. Because it was Paul and Anne who—through their extensive writing and research—gave special meaning to the words "population", "resources", and "environment" in the latter part of the 1960's. (They also coined the term coevolution, and did a lot to make ecology the household word it is today.) But while most folks are aware of the Ehrlichs' popular writing in the areas of ecology and overpopulation (most of us—for instance—have read Paul's book The Population Bomb) . . . far too few people have any idea of how deeply the Ehrlichs are involved in ecological research (research of the type that tends to be published only in technical journals and college textbooks). That's why it pleases us to be able to present—on a regular basis—the following semi-technical column by authors/ecologists/educators Anne and Paul Ehrlich.

HOW TO CUT YOUR CANCER RISKS!

If you're anything like us (or like most folks in the United States), the prospect of being among the one-out-of-every-four people who are—by the statistics-doomed to contract cancer is horrifying. Unfortunately, most folks feel helpless in the face of this threat. The tendency is to look upon cancer as almost an act of God . . . as something that's unavoidable.

From an individual's point of view, however, it would be more reasonable to compare the possibility of getting cancer to the odds of being killed in an automobile accident. In a society that's hooked on cars—as ours is—it's impossible to guarantee that any single person won't die in a crash. But the cautious, competent driver is, of course, much more likely to survive than is the fool who runs stop signs without looking. And the cautious, competent person also has a better chance of avoiding cancer than does the fool who smokes two packs of cigarettes a day and gorges on junk food.

Scientists have come to realize—in recent years—that the origins of most human cancers are environmental. The first connection between cancer and the environment was made by Sir Percival Pott in 1775 . . . when he discovered that chimney sweeps were very likely to get cancer of the scrotum.

The second tie-in between environmental factors and cancer came 100 years later, when the high incidence of skin cancer in dye plant workers was connected to the dyes themselves. (It turned out that the chemical compounds involved were similar to those in the soot that the chimney sweeps were constantly exposed to!) Since then, the list of environmental carcinogens (cancer-causing substances) has increased impressively.

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