Essay- Gapminder - Grade: A- PDF

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Essay on gapminder- environmental studies...

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Alaina Wiggins 10-20-16 Environmental Studies Essay- Gapminder Cervical Cancer Using Gapminder, I was specifically interested with the data that I found from the study on "Cervix Cancer, Number of Female Deaths." Based on the data, I hypothesize that the more extreme ratio of high population to lower health care, and worse working conditions that a country provides for it's citizens, the higher rates of women's cervical cancer deaths will occur. After analyzing the data, I found that the two leading countries with the highest cervical cancer deaths are India, with 74,118 and China, with 25,456 (Gapminder, 2016). These are both ludicrously high and the next closest one after these two is Brazil with 8,286, which is a huge gap between China and India. Both China and India are perfect examples of the large, underdeveloped countries where disease would be easily spread. Working conditions and health care plays into these rates because sweatshop working conditions are still present in these countries. In sweatshops, fair pay is rarely distributed, let alone healthcare. This leads to spikes in cancer rates because women, in this case, cannot afford to be treated. Also, if regular checkups are not a norm in the culture/ they cannot afford them, these women possibly didn't even know they had cervical cancer because it can lay dormant for years. China is responsible for 20% of the whole worlds cervical cancer cases. This fact really resonated with me and also supported my hypothesis because China is so large, however clearly not developed as much as they need to be with screenings, and medical attention opportunities. China and India support my statement because they both have extremely high populations for their level of development and also the highest cervical cancer rates. After further analyzation and research on the topic of cervical cancer rates in India, I started to develop a new hypothesis for the reason of booming cervical cancers in this location. One of the many causes of this cancer, are giving birth too young. This led me to looking into statistics on the average age of pregnancy and giving birth in India. Turns out they do have birth control, and population growth issues that has an apparent parallel relationship with the rise of the cancer. “India is set to become the world’s most populous country by 2030, and there are no other countries likely to ever rival this status. Since 1931, India has nearly quadrupled in size from 279 million people to well over a billion and currently represents 15% of the world’s population, although it has only 2.4% of the world’s land area” (McBride, 2012). At first glance, birth control doesn’t sound as if it would have too much of an affect on cancer rates. However, indirectly, birth control could regulate their population concern, and lower the rate of teens giving birth. Both of these things (population and early pregnancies), are huge contributors to the growing numbers of cervical cancer. This led to hypothesis development on my part, causing me to hypothesize that the more accessible birth control is in India, the rates of cervical cancer would substantially decrease.

Works Cited "GLOBOCAN Cancer Fact Sheets: Cervical Cancer." N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2016. http://wwwdep.iarc.fr/ McBride, Meredith. "History of Population Growth in India." Humanrightsinasia.wordpress. N.p., 31 July 2012. Web. 20 Oct. 2016. https://humanrightsinasia.wordpress.com/2012/07/31/history-of-population-control-in-india/...