This is incorrect. The article explicitly mentions PFAS as a potential cause.

> So-called forever chemicals like per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, better known as PFAS, have been linked to other cancers and could also be driving some of the increase in early-onset colorectal cancer.

yeah, something about all those doesn't feel as ubiquitous.

The increase in pharyngeal cancers may come from oral HPV infections specifically, not "libertine sexual habits" per se. It's only gonna be a few more years to find out, if HPV is related to the increase in colon cancers in young people, since the broad vaccination of teenagers is going for some time by now.

I think, it's also worth considering the fallout of the AIDS scare messing with statistics here. PrEP, education on and treatment options for HIV may have caused people (including heterosexual) to use less protection in recent years, unfortunately, since other STIs are less scary and stigmatized. I doubt rates of oral and anal sex have increased that much.

While this is true, size matters and a lot of that plastic is only now entering our food chain due to degradation.

Also plastic usage has massively increased compared to the 50s and 60s. Especially things like plastic fiber fast-fashion clothing shedding microplastic particles during wear and washing. Then there is synthetic polymers as cosmetic and personal care ingredients. Plastic bottle and pipe usage increased too, I think.

And we now use them a heck of a lot more and for more things than we did even 35 years ago.

> Plastic production has more than doubled in the last two decades

https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution

60 years ago plastic was a rarity, now micropastics are embedded in every piece of clothing, food, and drink you consume

Exponential growth is a bitch.

checks out.

i'm not familiar.