Shhh ... Cancer Diagnoses Increase By 4% Following Smoking Bans

Despite this factoid being reported briefly on a music radio station's news this morning, it has been almost entirely ignored elsewhere. It hasn't yet been even briefly mentioned by the BBC, NHS, or CRUK for example. It was unexpectedly difficult to find on Google, requiring not just refining to UK only results, but also only from the past 24 hours.

For a MSM which is usually obsessed with cancer this appears quite strange, especially since the source is impeccable (the Office of National Statistics), as is the news agency who relayed it.

4% increase in new cancer cases

The annual number of new cancer cases has increased by 4% for men and 3.7% for women, according to figures released.

In England in 2008, almost 5,000 more men and more than 4,500 more women were diagnosed with cancer than the previous year. The total number of new cases topped a quarter of a million.

Only the Express and Independent (plus a few regionals) have given it an airing, and even then they just regurgitated the brief PA piece verbatim.

I'm not saying there is a conspiracy going on here - I presume there must be embargoed press releases, or some such, being prepared for publication as I write - but it just isn't how we usually see such statistics being jumped upon treated.

If cancer diagnoses in 2008 had been travelling in the opposite direction, and considering there isn't a cancer which hasn't been blamed on smoking at some point, I'm sure the airwaves and column inches would have been teeming with charity spokespersons, vested interest lobbyists, and politicians claiming that the success of 2008 was solely attributable to the smoking ban.

Perhaps, like heart attack 'miracles', they're just waiting for favourable statistics to present themselves.

Just saying.