Re: [Marxism] Spiked online update

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Paddy wrote:

> There are the results of chemical control of disease - and it only natural
> that concomitantly death-rates from cancer (and heart problems) have
> increase - we all have to die and cause of death is always ascribed to
> something.

Certain chemicals cause cancer. Period. 150 years ago For example, 150
years ago Briitish scientists observed that chimney-sweeps would get cancer
of the scrotum in numbers all out of proportion to the population. The same
connections were made with people working on watches with radium dials.
Occupational hazards such as these are non-controversial.

It is more difficult to establish the connections between broader
environmental factors like pollutants in the air, earth or water. When
women in New Jersey or Long Island get breast cancer all out of proportion
to the rest of society, the chemical industry and the politicians that they
fund claim that it is a coincidence. So does the awful Gina Kolata, a
reporter for the NY Times, whose sister was the martyred environmentalist
Judi Bari. Also, since scientists have never been able to isolate the exact
series of changes that produce cancer in a laboratory, the issue of
causation never is as clear-cut as it is with AIDS and unprotected sex, for
example.

Paddy has been making arguments along these lines for as long as he has
been on the Marxism list going back to 1998. Since he has obviously arrived
at these ideas on his own and on a purely intellectual basis, I don't get
too worked up over that. On the other hand, the people at Spiked-online are
a bunch of dirty whores.


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