There is a great deal of misunderstanding about what behaviours and substances are likely causes of cancer, in one of its many manifestations.
This quiz lists a number of possible causes – all of them have been put forward as such at one time or another. Experts in the field have views as to whether or not these are likely or not to be carcinogenic – i.e. liable to lead to cancer. Because their views are based on solid science, they should be given much more attention than those of non-experts.
Please note that there is not much 100% certainty in this field. That is why the most that one can say is that a suggested cause is likely or not to be real. In this quiz, a Yes answer implies that the general scientific consensus is that it is a genuine cause and should therefore be avoided or treated with caution, and a No answer implies that it is not likely to be a cause – but this does not mean that it could not become so in some extreme circumstances.
We are talking here about balances of probabilities.
My source for this information is an article in a recent edition of New Scientist.
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Question of
Tobacco
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Power lines
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Fluoride in drinking water
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Mobile phones / cellphones
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Coffee
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Processed red meat
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Sunburn
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Drinking from plastic bottles
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Artificial sweeteners
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Obesity
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Stress
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Hepatitis B and C
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Yes
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No
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Question of
HPV (Human Papilloma Virus)
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Antiperspirants
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Genetically modified food
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Household cleaning products
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Yes
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No
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Poor show 9 out of 16 – pass marks.
Good quiz, cancer awareness is critical going forward. I missed one that I should have gotten (I selected coffee yes even though I had just read an article that said the opposite!)
7 out of 16 it was great to find out that some of the things I thought might be connected to cancer were not but life is much to short to constantly be worried about if all one can do is try to stay as safe as possible
10/16, I’m too wary. ?
I knew about the HPV because I took a vaccine against it.
I don’t get it all correct, it seems perhaps I am scare of cancer.:P
Guessed all correctly, good quiz.
Well done. Apparently some 40% of people would get the stress and sunburn questions wrong and only 30% of people know about HPV.