Shocking new cancer figures reveal how we are paying a massive price for our unhealthy lifestyle.
Too much sun and sunbeds, rising obesity rates, poor diet, smoking and heavy drinking are behind a sharp increase in a range of different cancers.
Poor lifestyle choices have driven up the incidences of liver, skin, colon and prostate cancers,
The inexorable rise in the number of diagnosed cases of cancer is revealed in a new analysis by the National Cancer Registry of Ireland, which looked at statistics over a 17-year period between 1994 and 2011.
One in three people in Ireland will develop cancer during their lifetime. An average of 30,000 new cases are diagnosed each year and this number is expected to rise to over 40,000 per year by 2020.
Skin cancer is now the fastest-growing cancer, with over 10,000 new cases annually.
James Reilly became one of the first health ministers in the developed world to ban young people from using commercial sunbeds.
But with an annual sun holiday now embedded in Irish culture, intermittent but severe exposure to the sun is behind a significant increase in the numbers of fair-skinned people developing both melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers.
In 1994 there were 5,146 cases of non-melanoma skin cancer in Ireland. By 2011 this jumped by an alarming 84pc to 9,190 cases.
Prostate cancer is now the second most common cancer among Irish men, after skin cancer. Ireland has the highest incidence of prostate cancer in Europe and is among the highest in the world, with one in eight men diagnosed with the disease. Prostate cancer rose from 1,097 cases in 1994 to 3,451 cases in 2011 - though this is partly explained by improvements in detection.
Cases of liver cancer have also risen sharply - jumping by 182pc between 1994 and 2011. Our heavy alcohol consumption and binge-drinking culture is partly blamed for the rising incidence of liver cancer.
A recent survey revealed two-thirds of Irish male drinkers and one-third of women have engaged in "heavy episodic drinking" (six drinks in one sitting) in the previous month.
Source: Niamh Horan, Irish Independent, 14/07/14
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