These figures vary depending on whether we consider what is known with certainty or whether we attribute to the environment part of the unknown. 35% of cancers with unexplained causes.
The relationship between cancers and environmental problems is well established in cases of ionizing radiation and thyroid cancer, solar radiation and skin cancer, lead and neurotoxic effects. Besides these examples, it is rare that an environmental factor is the only cause of a disease.
Cancer surveillance, “necessary for environmental health surveillance”, would make it possible to define measures and exposure levels. Biomonitoring, or the measurement of pollutants and their metabolites in the blood, urine, or tissues, is another way of proceeding to establish this monitoring, recalls the InVS.
“Public authorities, citizens, media” expect a surveillance of “everything that could happen”, according to this bulletin. This organization recalls the difficulty of monitoring exposures in the absence of certainty or knowledge of the health effects.
Source: Institute for Public Health Surveillance (InVS)
