The Suffering Gene

Download or read book The Suffering Gene written by Roy Burdon and published by Zed Books. This book was released on 2003-05 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cancer kills one man out of every two, and one woman out of three, in the industrialized countries today. And its incidence, despite all efforts to the contrary, is increasing at one per cent a year. The fact is that some 80 per cent of cancers are likely to be due to environmental factors that could be reduced or even eradicated. This book explains how our genes work, and how they are adversely affected by the modern environment in which we live, whether in the North or the South. The factors include toxic industrial and agricultural chemicals, excessive sunlight ( a result of the hole in the ozone layer), nuclear radiation from power plants and the military, other forms of radiation (mobile phones, electricity transmission systems), food contaminants, atmospheric pollutants (tobacco smoke, car exhaust fumes), and the potential impact of genetic engineering. It explains how the body defends itself from external attack, what happens when these defences are overwhelmed, and the need for much more careful development of new technologies, industrial processes, products and foodstuffs.