Obesity likely to overtake smoking as biggest killer, says Cancer Research UK
London — Obesity could overtake smoking as the chief avoidable cause of cancer-related deaths, the world’s largest independent funder of cancer research said on Friday. With smoking rates in decline and obesity on the rise, it could surpass smoking as the biggest killer, the CEO of Cancer Research UK said as it published new research. "Obesity is potentially the new smoking, if we’re not careful," said Harpal Kumar. "My sense would be it’ll be some time in next couple of decades that we’ll see those two switch around." Following a major new study of 2015 cancer data, the charity found that 37.7% of all cancers diagnosed in Britain each year could be prevented through lifestyle changes. Smoking remains the biggest avoidable cause of cancer, a factor in 15.1% of preventable cases — down from 19.4% in 2011 — followed by obesity at 6.3% — up from 5.5%. Next came over-exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun and sunbeds and occupational exposure at 3.8% each, infections (3.6%), alc...
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