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Links / news

Types of cancer observed:

The 4 children who obtained cancer had the following types of cancers:

  • Kidney Cancer
  • Brain Cancer
  • 2 more unknown

The mothers also compiled a list of cancers occurring in their area which include:

  • Breast cancer
  • Leukemia
  • Liver cancer
  • Kidney Cancer
  • ...

I definitely find it odd the 2 boys (who were friends) both got cancer. This seems greatly unusual, but not impossible. I'd think it was more about some activity the 2 boys did together, maybe without their parents knowledge, but that'd be more speculation.

Cancers caused by radiation (from googling):

  • Lung cancer - from breathing in radon
  • Skin cancer - exposure to ionising radiation

In theory other forms of cancer could be seen from ionising radiation but I did some maths and found that exposure to the sun for 1 day is comparable to 27 years near a mobile phone. So the idea that the cancer was caused by radiation seems somewhat impossible to me.

Cancers caused by TCE (from paper):

  • Kidney cancer
  • Non-Hodgkin lymphoma
  • Liver cancer
  • Cervical cancer
  • Esophageal adrenocarinoma

Most common causes of kidney cancer

  • Cadmium
  • "Specific herbicides"

Most common causes of brain cancer

  • Exposure to "Pesticides, Herbicides, Fertilizer"
  • Working with elements that can cause cancer, such as lead, plastic, rubber, petroleum, and some textiles
  • Having an Epstein-Barr virus infection, or mononucleosis

Most common causes of "cancer"

I generally don't like to say there is a cause of "cancer" because cancer is such a catch-all/generic phrase... But...

According to cancer.org

  • Smoking and Tobacco
  • Diet and Physical Activity
  • Sun and Other Types of Radiation
  • Viruses and Other Infections
  • Genetic causes

Are the most common causes of cancer

What do you think?

All the information here seems very disjointed. TCE could have caused one of the children's kidney cancer. But at the same time cancer isn't uncommon, according to cancer.org 4 out of 10 people will get cancer at some point in their lives.

What are your thoughts?

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    I think the jury is still out: sacramento.cbslocal.com/2019/09/26/…
    – Daniel R Hicks
    Commented Mar 28, 2020 at 17:23
  • 1
    The end of this seems to be worded as if it's looking for opinions or discussions, which aren't really on topic on this site. I would suggest rewording that a bit. See the help centre for more details skeptics.stackexchange.com/help
    – JMac
    Commented Mar 28, 2020 at 19:20
  • 1
    There is another possibility: radioctive particles dumped on the land by the 1957 Windscale and 1986 Chernobyl fires. Although the UK government tried to air-brush it away (by renaming the plant as Sellafield and saying most of the radioactivity was Iodine-131 with a half-life of only 8 days) there were other isotopes too, which may have lingered, and it's possible the two boys liked one such spot. Perhaps the wind blew a particle into a crevice which somehow never gets washed by the rain.
    – Weather Vane
    Commented Mar 28, 2020 at 20:27
  • 1
    @WeatherVane - You're saying that incidents in Britain and Ukraine caused cancer in kids in California?????
    – Daniel R Hicks
    Commented Mar 29, 2020 at 2:23
  • 1
    Co-incidences happen all the time. Children get cancer all the time. Sometimes, by co-incidence, a bunch of them happen to be in the same school. The odds of this happening to any one school are very low, but there are a lot of schools in America. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clustering_illusion
    – Paul Johnson
    Commented Mar 30, 2020 at 8:38

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