10 Facts

10 facts about Cancer: 1. Those who sleep less than six hours a night are more likely to develop colon cancer than those who sleep more. 2. One in eight deaths in the world is due to cancer. Cancer causes more deaths than AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined. 3. Nitrates are chemical additives used to preserve and add flavouring to most lunch meats, including cold cuts and hot dogs. Once in the body, they react with body chemicals and turn into cancer-causing carcinogens.   4. Cancer is not just one disease; rather it is a set of diseases. Different agents cause each type of cancer. 5. Childhood cancers represent less than 1% of all new cancer diagnoses, yet it is the second leading cause of death in children, second to accidents. 6. Professor Devra Davis argues that cancer research has been plagued by corporations and politicians manipulating and “fudging” data about cancer-causing toxins such as benzene and tobacco for money. Additionally, she argu...

10 Facts about Nuclear Energy 1. Nuclear energy comes from uranium, a nonrenewable resource that must be mined. 2. Every 18 to 24 months, a power plant must shut down to remove its spent uranium fuel, which becomes radioactive waste. 3. In 1905, Einstein discovered that mass could be changed into energy and vice versa. In 1918, Sir Ernest Rutherford showed that atoms could be split. By 1942, the world had its first nuclear reactor. 4. Today, 104 nuclear plants supply about 2 0% of the United State’s electricity. The oldest plants have been operating since before 1979. 5. Contaminated food was still sold in the Ukraine after the Chernobyl accident. One worker described the conditions after the accident: “Contaminated meat would come from the factory. The internal organs of the cattle would be black and rotten, but still, the meat was sold." 6. Currently, nuclear waste in the United States is stored in cooling pools of water and in dry storage casks at nu...