No proof exists that electric power lines and appliances cause cancer, or for claims that indoor radon gas causes 10 percent of lung cancer deaths. Exposure to cancer-causing substances in the workplace, family history of cancer, and viruses each raises the fatality risk by 5 percent. However, only 5 percent of the risk comes from inherited genes, the rest comes from mutations accumulated during a person's lifetime. Such mutations come from smoking, animal fat, and other demons mentioned in the report. Body size is also a 5 percent factor.
Taller people get more cancer.
The researchers blame this on eating many more calories than necessary and failing to burn them off with activity. Evidence is also emerging that larger birth weight raises the risk of breast and, perhaps, prostate cancer. Early age at menarche, late age at first birth, and late menopause also raise the risk of breast cancer, accounting for an estimated 3 percent of cancer mortality. The authors link poverty with 2 percent of deaths, particularly from lung, stomach, and uterine cancers. Being at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder is also associated with increased exposure to tobacco smoke, alcoholism, poor nutrition, and increased infections.