A new study links high levels of nighttime artificial light with high rates of prostate cancer. The study, conducted jointly by the University of Haifa and the University of Connecticut, analyzed data collected by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and found that the highest rates of prostate cancer occur in countries with the brightest lights at night.
The researchers weighed several factors when determining the “amount of artificial light per night per person,” including a country’s consumption of electricity, density of urban population, and overall socioeconomic status. They then divided countries into three groups according to the average amount of light per person: little exposure, medium exposure, and high exposure.
Countries with low exposure had 66.77 prostate cancer patients per 100,000 people. For countries with medium exposure, the rate increased 30 percent to 87.11 patients per 100,000. Countries with the highest exposure jumped 80 percent to 157 patients per 100,000. The researchers say there is a definite cause and effect between artificial light and prostate cancer, but no one can explain the mechanism, although there are several theories, such as light at night upsetting the body’s biological clock.
In a previous study, the same researchers found a similar link between light at night and breast cancer.
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