Cancer Cell People all over the world believe scientifically unproven myths about cancer. In fact, according to a survey conducted by the American Cancer Society, some Americans think that shampoo and even underwire bras could cause tumors.

The organization analyzed data from a survey of 1000 US adults who had never been diagnosed with cancer. On the basis of this, they enlisted 12 common cancer myths.

The twelve common cancer myths are:

  • The risk of dying from cancer in the United States is increasing: 67.7 percent say it’s true, 9.8 per cent don’t know, the remainder say it’s false
  • Living in a polluted city is a greater risk for lung cancer than smoking a pack of cigarettes a day: 38.7 per cent say it’s true, 18.8 per cent don’t know
  • Some injuries can cause cancer later in life: 37.2 per cent say it’s true, 20.9 per cent don’t know
  • Electronic devices, like cell phones, can cause cancer in the people who use them: 29.7 per cent say it’s true, 24.7 per cent don’t know
  • What someone does as a young adult has little effect on their chance of getting cancer later in life: 24.8 per cent say it’s true, 7.1 per cent don’t know
  • Long-time smokers cannot reduce their cancer risk by quitting smoking: 16.2 per cent say it’s true, 5.7 per cent don’t know
  • People who smoke low-tar cigarettes have less chance of developing lung cancer than people who smoke regular cigarettes: 7m per cent say it’s true, 10.8 per cent don’t know
  • Personal hygiene products, like shampoo, deodorant and antiperspirants, can cause cancer: 13.7 per cent say it’s true, 15.3 per cent don’t know
  • Getting a mammogram, or using a special X-ray machine to detect breast cancer, can cause cancer of the breast: 10.2 per cent say it’s true, 16.1 per cent don’t know
  • Getting a base tan or base coat at a tanning salon will provide protection from skin cancer when you go outside in the sun: 8.4 per cent say it’s true, 13.2 per cent don’t know
  • Underwire bras can cause breast cancer: 6.2 per cent say it’s true, 30.9 per cent don’t know
  • You cannot get skin cancer from using a tanning booth: 6.2 per cent say it’s true, 18.3 per cent don’t know

    • The study also revealed that people with lower educational qualifications were more likely to believe these myths, with men being more likely than women to be naïve.

    It was also observed from the study that communities that were most at the risk of cancer were also the ones that were most likely to be misinformed.

    According to lead study author Kevin Stein from American Cancer Society’s Behavioral Research Center in Atlanta, “If people hold erroneous beliefs about risk factors for cancer they might not be making informed decisions for their behaviors.”

    ‘What we would like to do is to have people get accurate information and hold accurate beliefs about what are and what are not risk factors for cancer with the hope that will translate into healthy behavioral patterns,’ he added.

    A while ago, we had reported an article that cleared doubts relating to Breast Cancer. Click here to read it.