Behind the ‘High Incidence of Lung Cancer’

Abstract

After 2008, a movement opposing waste incinerators swept across many cities in China. At the time, there was already a conflictual relationship between L waste incinerator in Guangdong and surrounding residents, but the ‘Panyu incident’ caused what was originally a small local conflict to become an issue of wider and even national concern. The list of ‘cancer victims’ that circulated on the internet, and related media reports, gradually convinced the public that the waste incinerator plant was responsible for high rates of lung cancer among residents. However, our investigations found that there were numerous errors in the information about the incidence of lung cancer. The chapter discusses what we discovered about the complex background to this case, and the reasons why rumours and misinformation spread so easily at this time.