Accumulated cell and nuclear damage from an endless assortment of factors cause cells to enter disease states. When certain errant states that regulate cell proliferation and apoptosis begin to accumulate, cell populations begin to drift into the cancer territory.
The number one cause of cancer is life. There are accelerating factors in the environment, for sure, but cancer is simply an error state of our biology. It's the machinery of higher order life breaking down and entering a pattern that doesn't self-regulate.
I think you have to try to put yourself in the mind of someone who is receptive to conspiracy theories when replying to people like above.
What you said makes sense, but it is only convincing if you already trust the scientific institutions and believe in reductionism. And that, is unfortunately much less common than we would think.
The guy believes that there are poisons in everyday products, telling them that "damage from an endless assortment of factors cause cells to enter disease states" is not at all a refutation of their belief taken from their point of view. In fact, I expect that it even looks like weasel wording for exactly what they said from their point of view.
I think that on topics like this, it's important to expose the premises, the concrete basic facts much more than the conclusion, the general abstraction.
Do you know how cancer biology works?
Accumulated cell and nuclear damage from an endless assortment of factors cause cells to enter disease states. When certain errant states that regulate cell proliferation and apoptosis begin to accumulate, cell populations begin to drift into the cancer territory.
The number one cause of cancer is life. There are accelerating factors in the environment, for sure, but cancer is simply an error state of our biology. It's the machinery of higher order life breaking down and entering a pattern that doesn't self-regulate.