The prediction was made by the WHO (World Health Organization), according to Dr Ni Luh Putu Menon Partini, secretary of the Gianyar branch of the Indonesian Cancer Foundation (YKI), at a gathering with local elementary and high school students to educate them about the need to pursue a healthy life style.
She also said the number of cancer sufferers who die of the disease was also increasing at an apprehensive rate. Of the 27 million people world-wide who had cancer in a certain year, 17 million had died.
Therefore, she said, people needed counseling and coaching on the lethal disease and how to avoid it as early as possible in their lives.
The counseling and coaching should start at school age because, while basically every human being had the potential of contracting cancer, it could be prevented or minimized by pursuing a healthy life style.
YKI would provide coaching and counseling materials for school students that were adjusted the intellectual absorption capacities of students at different levels of schooling, she said.
For example, students of elementary schools would taught about how to practice clean living, wash hands properly, and choose the food offered at their schools` canteens.
For junior and senior high school students, the materials would also dwell on awareness about the danger of cancer, how to identify foods that contain dyes, preservatives, thickeners, sweeteners, flavoring, and knowledge to detect cancer as early as possible , especially for breast cancer and cervical cancer.
Meanwhile, the chairperson of YKI`s Gianyar branch, Cokorda Oka Artha Ardana Sukawati, said to prevent cancer as early as possible, people should consume food that contains anti-cancer and anti-carsinogenic agents, namely multifarious, natural and nutritionally balanced food.
"Cancer is mainly caused by an unhealthy lifestyle. Therefore, schools, their canteens in particular, must not sell food or drinks that contain dyes, preservatives, thickeners, sweeteners, or flavoring," he said.
(Uu.SDP-06/HAJM/S012)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
