Environmental toxins and cancer
Environmental toxins can cause epigenetic changes in the microenvironment of your cells - be those toxins Dioxins, Mercury or Xenoestrogens; these are proven to alter the message system - either the mRNA copies from your DNA and/or the subsequent proteins. Messages are lost and chronic illness, including cancer, can follow.
We have all heard of all the dangers of asbestos. But did you know that Talcum powder has also been linked with Mesothelioma lung cancer? (1) And Ovarian cancer?
Research also shows Dioxins cause illness including cancer. They are produced by incineration and even forest fires and volcanoes. They are absorbed and collect in fat stores in your body. You can find them in animals and fresh water fish. In 1979 the EPA in the USA banned the use of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (2).
The FDA in America and IARC in Europe have declared chemicals like Formaldehyde and Dichlorobenzene to be carcinogens. Yet, you can find them both in plentiful supply in your UK home. (See our article: As safe as Houses).
Even common prescription drugs are not beyond increasing cancer risk. Especially when older people may take cocktails of six or more drugs, the combination never having been through research, let alone a clinical trial (3). Polypharmacy, or illness due to taking a cocktail of prescription drugs, is responsible for 28 per cent of total admissions at the New York Presbyterian Hospital, and is the number one cause of death in Florida.
The World Health Organisation in 2013 issued a report calling for all countries to ban gender-bending chemicals:
These are common chemicals that increase the oestrogen levels in your body, or weaken your immune system. They are called xenoestrogens, and have been found to be cumulative. For example:
* Bisphenol A - in white linings of cans, plastic toys, babys feeding bottle? Banned in Canada, a known oestrogen mimic; a xenoestrogen.
* Parabens, a common preservative.
* Phthalates released from the plasticisers used in plastic cups and bottles especially after the liquid contents became warm.
* DEHP - In perfumed products - perfumes can contain any of about 150 ingredients, and they don't have to be labelled. Some contain toluene (also in some nail polishes). It is a xenoestrogen and has been linked to brain tumours.
The last compound, DEHP, has been linked in pregnant animals to higher rates of subsequent genital deformity in their male offspring; and even testicular cancers in some cases. DEHP doesn't just come from perfumes but is a plasticiser which was commonly used in plastic products (6).
IARC has declared that over 500 environmental factors - from EMFs to Glyphosate (in Monsanto's RoundUp) - are 'Probable Carcinogens'. Various court cases in the USA awarded significant amounts of damages (often over $75 million) to people who developed lymphoma from Glyphosate use. Other juries awarded similar sums in damages to women who developed ovarian cancer following talcum powder use (2 totalling $137 million in St Louis, for example).
Why are environmental toxins dangerous?
The Science of Epigenetics has shown that various factors can block/or alter essential messages from your DNA and cause cancer - these include poor diet, stress, hormones such as oestrogen, low oxygen, smoking, AND ENVIRONMENTAL TOXINS.
Christine Mayr, for example, from Sloan Kettering (4) showed that the message loss acknowledged to be the cause of chronic illnesses like cancer, was NOT due to 'mutations' in your DNA. In fact, she and her team showed in 2021 that there were No New Mutations in your DNA leading to cancer. All changes were in the microenvironment of your cells, during the copying process. And this is why negative factors such as low oxygen, environmental toxins and even mRNA from parasites and pathogens can cause these 'Around' (epi -) your DNA (genetic) changes. Of course, all epigenetic changes are therefore potentially reversible, unlike the permenant damage a genuine mutation would cause. This is how powerful antioxidants that you make yourself - like Melatonin from sleep or sunlight by day, and/or Glutathione (from greens, onions, garlic, flaxseed and more); and Polyphenols from over 500 plants, vegetables, fruits and herbs, can and do protect and correct us.
Go to: Epigenetics and reversing cancer
Herbicides, pesticides and cancer?
Avoid Herbicides and Pesticides, where possible. Many contain xenoestrogens. The UK Government didn't even mention pesticides in its 2004 White Paper on cancer. But the EU has frequently covered this issue, talking about health risks and even cancer. It is not surprising really. DDT and Lindane were linked to four-fold increases in breast cancer in Israel before they were banned. Mind you, the Western Governments only banned their sale in the West. You can still find them on a vegetable from a third world country in a green grocers near you.
"50 per cent of cancers are your fault" - you smoke, you are overweight, you go in the sun (actually that's good for you - it's burning that's bad!) and you eat a poor diet. Cancer Research told us that for years. They even stated on their Website at one point that 'Environmental toxins have never been proven to cause cancer, and if they ever were, it would only be a small number!'
Environmental causes of cancer multiply up the effects of smoking
So what are the other 50 per cent of cancers caused by? And why is there hardly anything on most of the big charity websites? Cancer Research UK estimated that only about 2 per cent of all cancers were caused by environmental toxins. However, that 2% (actually it was 2-4%) equates to 6500 - 13000 cancer cases in the UK and was the finding some 40 years ago of two UK Professors, Doll and Peto.
The true figures for Environmental toxins and cancer
Since then we know far more: In the 2006 report from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell: "Environmental and Occupational Causes of Cancer: A Review of Recent Scientific Evidence" the researchers said that environmental toxins could play a part in up to 35% of all cancers.
"Many cancer cases and deaths are caused or contributed to by involuntary exposures. These include: bladder cancer from the primary solvent used in dry cleaning, breast cancer from endocrine disrupters like bisphenol-A and other plastics components, lung cancer from residential exposure to radon, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma from solvent and herbicide exposure, and childhood leukemia from pesticides The authors further noted that the mortality rate for all cancers combined (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) is the same today as it was in the 1940s, yet the annual rate of new cases has significantly increased".
"Major cancer agencies have largely avoided the urgency of acting on what we know to prevent people from getting cancer in the first place," said researcher Genevieve Howe at Lowell.
Far more worrying are 2012 and 2013 findings that environmental toxins seem to multiply up the effects of smoking (5). Read our longer article Pillar II on the causes of cancer - Environmental Toxins (click this link). It takes you through a number of cancers and tells you the available research and what American websites have to say.
Cancer prevention? If you really want to prevent cancer you need to know the Whole Truth - what factors have been shown in research to increase the risk of cancer, either directly, or indirectly? Understand these and you really will have a greater chance of preventing cancer - for yourself and your family.
You will find a host of articles on cancer prevention on this Website. Some are full features that have run in icon (Independent Cancer and Oncology News), which went into Hospitals throughout the UK. Others are research pieces straight from our monthly research review Cancer Watch and appearing in Chris Woollams' e-news.
Go to: The Latest News on CANCERactive
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References
1. Causes of Mesothelioma - https://www.canceractive.com/article/what-is-mesothelioma
2. American Government information on Dioxins - https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/dioxins/index.cfm
3. Polypharmacy in older adults - https://www.nia.nih.gov/news/dangers-polypharmacy-and-case-deprescribing-older-adults
4. Cancer Drivers and NOT found in the DNA - https://www.canceractive.com/article/cancer-drivers%20not%20found%20in%20dna
5. Environmental Toxins and cancer; effects of smoking - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2791455/
6. Prenatal exposure to DEHP and testicular issues - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6075616/
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