Carcinogens in Daily Needs: From Coffee To Cell Phones, May Increase Cancer Risk
Carcinogen is a substance that causes cancer
According to an article published in NPR, risk of cancer is increasing in our daily lives, day by day. Many of our daily activities like drinking coffee from a plastic foam cup and talking over the cell phone while sitting in a freshly dry walled house, can increase the risk of cancer. Even cellphones! For instance, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization recently announced said that cell phones can possibly increase the risk of brain tumor (though others contend that there is not enough evidence to support this data and cancer rates have not risen since the cell phones came out).
Even though the news reported that carcinogens in daily needs can cause cancer, it does not mean that they pose a risk to everyone who is exposed to them for any amount of time.
According to health experts, most people are at a very little risk, despite the fact that different studies have proved that things like coffee, cell phones, styrene and formaldehyde in the building materials can cause cancer. Technically, Inactivity and obesity can pose a greater risk of cancer in some people, than the chemicals.
And what do the experts say?
Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, Deputy Chief Medical Officer of the American Cancer Society, opines that the danger posed by most of the common things in our lives is not big enough to cause cancer.
Dr. Linda Birnbaum, a Toxicologist who heads the government agency that just declared styrene, an ingredient in fiberglass boats and Styrofoam as a cancer causing agent, said that the levels of styrene leach from the food containers are hundreds of times lower than have occurred in occupational settings, where the vapor form of the chemical can pose a risk to the workers. Risk of styrene is certainly not an issue in the finished products, and exposure to it from riding a boat is infinitely small.
The growing list of carcinogens
More than 900 substances have been evaluated by the International Cancer Agency. Just over 100 have been deemed as carcinogens, 59 are called probable carcinogens, and 266 others are the possible ones. Besides electromagnetic energy from the cell phones, coffee, engine exhaust, and body talc, are in the last category of the possible carcinogens. Most risk of body talc is occupational and unusual exposure. There is no clear evidence on the risk of danger from coffee.
It will be shocking for some people to know that most of the things they interact with everyday are on the list of known carcinogens like alcoholic beverages, estrogen treatments for menopause symptoms, birth control pills, certain viruses and parasites, and even some drugs used to treat cancer such as cyclophosphamide and tamoxifen.
The agencies that pass judgment on possible carcinogens don’t determine that what level of exposure is a concern and for whom. As a result people assume that it is going to cause cancer at any exposure level, which is simply not true.
There is a rule to determine the risk which is called RITE (Risk is Equal to Toxicity Times Exposure). People usually fear the risk which is imposed on us more than the risk which we take voluntarily. They always want to take reasonable measures to avoid the exposure to possibly harmful things. People have to remember that you can’t live life in fear, You will have to live life.