RE: chips

["David McDonald" <dbmcdonald@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:owner-marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Paddy Apling
Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2003 1:37 AM
To: marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: chips

Paddy Appling wrote:

The "cancer epidemic" is a myth.
Cancer is a result of DNA-replication errors - which multiply with ageing.
More people now die of cancer, merely because fewer die of infectious
diseases, and because of advances in scientific agriculture and medicine the
average age of death is so much higher than in past ages.  Now, apart from
accidental deaths, almost the only causes of death are heart failure and
cancer.....

David McDonald replies:

Very general statement, almost certainly wrong. Cancer is the leading cause
of death of people in the US from the ages of 35 to 65, at which age heart
disease then becomes the great killer. I believe in human history most
people who made it past their childhoods probably lived close to 35 years or
more. Paddy elides the question: WHY are there failures of DNA to replicate
properly. He presents no evidence for his views. For mortality causes, see

http://webapp.cdc.gov/cgi-bin/broker.exe

I also reject the idea of scientific agriculture. What we have is capitalist
agriculture, not even close to the same thing. In general on this thread I
find myself agreeing more with Louis, less with Jose. People on this list
are far more sanguine about the alleged ability of technology to make these
problems go away than I.