Commenting on the release of new statistics on the amount of preventable cancers from Cancer Research UK, published as a supplement to the British Journal of Cancer, RCP president Sir Richard Thompson said:
These stark new figures are a wake up call to the government to take stronger action on public health. The rising incidence of preventable cancers shows that the ‘carrot’ approach of voluntary agreements with industry is not enough to prompt healthy behaviours, and needs to be replaced by the ‘stick’ approach of legislative solutions.
These include:
- increasing the price and reducing the availability of alcohol
- introducing new measures to prevent the uptake of smoking, promoting smoke-free homes, banning smoking in cars, introducing plain packaging for cigarettes, and further supporting people to give up smoking.