116 things that cause cancer

Include smoking, sunbeds, arsenic, asbestos as well as hepatitis B and C, HIV, Epstein-Barr virus, working as painter

BACON, burgers and sausages were this week deemed to be as big a cancer threat as cigarettes, according to global health chiefs.

The warning saw processed meat added to the list of items classified as carcingogenic to humans by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

It means dietary favourites, including salami, chorizo and smoked ham, rank alongside arsenic and asbestos, when it comes to the potential cancer risk.

Officials said just 50g of processed meat a day – less than one sausage – increases the risk of bowel cancer by almost a fifth.

The report also classified red meat as ‘probably carcinogenic’ – one rank below – but added that it had some nutritional benefits.

Experts are now urging the public to avoid processed meat where possible and to have a bean salad for lunch rather than a BLT.

Processed meat has been preserved, for example by smoking, and includes ham and pate, as well as burgers and mince if they have been preserved using salt or chemical additives.

Experts think the substances added during processing cause cancer. These include preservatives such as nitrates and nitrites – as well as substantial amounts of salt.

Fresh red meat is also strongly linked to cancer and the WHO categorised it one level below processed meat, as ‘probably carcinogenic’.

But it also provides many nutritional benefits and is high in protein, iron and vitamin B12, which prevent tiredness and infections.

Twenty-two experts at the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), from 10 countries, took the decision after reviewing more than 800 studies that investigated the links between red meat and processed meat and various different types of cancer.

Processed meat was classified as carcinogenic, based on sufficient evidence in humans that consumption causes specifically colorectal or bowel cancer, they concluded.

The classification of red meat as ‘probably carcinogenic to humans’ was observed mainly in relation to colorectal cancer, but links were also seen for pancreatic and prostate cancer.

The experts concluded that each 50 gram portion of processed meat eaten daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18 per cent.

“For an individual, the risk of developing colorectal cancer because of their consumption of processed meat remains small, but this risk increases with the amount of meat consumed,” said Dr. Kurt Straif, head of the IARC Monographs Programme.

“In view of the large number of people who consume processed meat, the global impact on cancer incidence is of public health importance.”

Dr. Christopher Wild, director of IARC added: “These findings further support current public health recommendations to limit intake of meat. At the same time, red meat has nutritional value.

“Therefore, these results are important in enabling governments and international regulatory agencies to conduct risk assessments, in order to balance the risks and benefits of eating red meat and processed meat and to provide the best possible dietary recommendations.”

But, in light of the news, which has attracted widespread reaction, the IARC has revealed its list of 116 things that can cause cancer. The list features the known obvious culprits, tobacco smoke, secondhand smoke, alcohol, asbestos and arsenic, to name a few.

But, there are also a number of everyday activities and items that feature that are almost impossible to avoid, including the air we breathe.

And the list also features various health conditions, such as hepatitis B and C as well as HIV.

Here, DailyMailUK online reveals all those things, which are classified alongside processed meat in the IARC’s group one, carcinogenic to humans category – those that definitely cause cancer:

1. Tobacco smoking 2. Sunlamps and sunbeds 3. Aluminium production 4. Arsenic in drinking water 5. Auramine production 6. Boot and shoe manufacture and repair 7. Chimney sweeping 8. Coal gasification 9. Coal tar distillation 10. Coke (fuel) production 11. Furniture and cabinet making 12. Haematite mining (underground) with exposure to radon 13. Secondhand smoke 14. Iron and steel founding 15. Isopropanol manufacture (strong-acid process) 16. Magenta dye manufacturing 17. Occupational exposure as a painter

18. Paving and roofing with coal-tar pitch 19. Rubber industry 20. Occupational exposure of strong inorganic acid mists containing sulphuric acid 21. Naturally occurring mixtures of aflatoxins (produced by funghi) 22. Alcoholic beverages 23. Areca nut – often chewed with betel leaf 24. Betel quid without tobacco 25. Betel quid with tobacco 26. Coal tar pitches 27. Coal tars

28. Indoor emissions from household combustion of coal 29. Diesel exhaust 30. Mineral oils, untreated and mildly treated 31. Phenacetin, a pain and fever reducing drug 32. Plants containing aristolochic acid (used in Chinese herbal medicine) 33. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) – widely used in electrical equipment in the past, banned in many countries in the 1970s 34. Chinese-style salted fish 35. Shale oils 36. Soots 37. Smokeless tobacco products 38. Wood dust 39. Processed meat 40. Acetaldehyde 41. 4-Aminobiphenyl 42. Aristolochic acids and plants containing them 43. Asbestos 44. Arsenic and arsenic compounds

45. Azathioprine 46. Benzene 47. Benzidine 48. Benzo[a]pyrene 49. Beryllium and beryllium compounds 50. Chlornapazine (N,N-Bis(2-chloroethyl)-2-naphthylamine) 51. Bis(chloromethyl)ether 52. Chloromethyl methyl ether 53. 1,3-Butadiene 54. 1,4-Butanediol dimethanesulfonate (Busulphan, Myleran) 55. Cadmium and cadmium compounds 56. Chlorambucil 57. Methyl-CCNU (1-(2-Chloroethyl)-3-(4-methylcyclohexyl)-1-nitrosourea; Semustine) 58. Chromium(VI) compounds

59. Ciclosporin 60. Contraceptives, hormonal, combined forms (those containing both oestrogen and a progestogen) 61. Contraceptives, oral, sequential forms of hormonal contraception (a period of oestrogen-only followed by a period of both oestrogen and a progestogen) 62. Cyclophosphamide 63. Diethylstilboestrol 64. Dyes metabolized to benzidine 65. Epstein-Barr virus 66. Oestrogens, nonsteroidal 67. Oestrogens, steroidal 68. Oestrogen therapy, postmenopausal 69. Ethanol in alcoholic beverages 70. Erionite 71. Ethylene oxide 72. Etoposide alone and in combination with cisplatin and bleomycin 73. Formaldehyde

74. Gallium arsenide 75. Helicobacter pylori (infection with) 76. Hepatitis B virus (chronic infection with) 77. Hepatitis C virus (chronic infection with) 78. Herbal remedies containing plant species of the genus Aristolochia 79. Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (infection with) 80. Human papillomavirus type 16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59 and 66. 81. Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type-I. 82. Melphalan 83. Methoxsalen (8-Methoxypsoralen) plus ultraviolet A-radiation 84. 4,4’-methylene-bis(2-chloroaniline) (MOCA) 85. MOPP and other combined chemotherapy including alkylating agents

86. Mustard gas (sulphur mustard) 87. 2-Naphthylamine 88. Neutron radiation 89. Nickel compounds 90. 4-(N-Nitrosomethylamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) 91. N-Nitrosonornicotine (NNN) 92. Opisthorchis viverrini (infection with) 93. Outdoor air pollution 94. Particulate matter in outdoor air pollution 95. Phosphorus-32, as phosphate 96. Plutonium-239 and its decay products (may contain plutonium-240 and other isotopes), as aerosols 97. Radioiodines, short-lived isotopes, including iodine-131, from atomic reactor accidents and nuclear weapons detonation (exposure during childhood) 98. Radionuclides, α-particle-emitting, internally deposited

99. Radionuclides, β-particle-emitting, internally deposited 100. Radium-224 and its decay products 101. Radium-226 and its decay products 102. Radium-228 and its decay products 103. Radon-222 and its decay products 104. Schistosoma haematobium (infection with) 105. Silica, crystalline (inhaled in the form of quartz or cristobalite from occupational sources) 106. Solar radiation 107. Talc containing asbestiform fibres 108. Tamoxifen 109. 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin 110. Thiotepa (1,1’,1’-phosphinothioylidynetrisaziridine) 111. Thorium-232 and its decay products, administered intravenously as a colloidal dispersion of thorium-232 dioxide 112. Treosulfan 113. Ortho-toluidine 114. Vinyl chloride 115. Ultraviolet radiation and 116. X-radiation and gamma radiation.

• Culled from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3293707/Revealed-116-things-cause-CANCER-according-world-health-experts.