The World Health Organisation (WHO) announced that processed meats are carcinogenic, expanding the ever-increasing list of what can cause cancer.
Now, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an organisation that collects and studies data on the disease, has released an exhaustive list of the 116 items, activities and chemicals that can contribute to cancer.
Although red meat is not on the list – it is only “probable” that the meat causes cancer – other activities to steer clear of include cabinet making (excessive exposure to wood dust has been linked to nasal cancer) and Chinese-style salted fish.
Cancer is one of the leading causes of death globally. An estimated 8.2 million people died of cancer-related diseases in 2012 with the number of deaths expected to rise by around 70 per cent over the next two years, according to data from WHO released earlier this year.
Smoking remains the number one cause of cancer, contributing to roughly 20 per cent of global cancer deaths and around 70 per cent of global lung cancer deaths.
Here are the complete list of things that give you cancer (according to epidemiologists):
Tobacco smoking
Sunlamps and sunbeds
Aluminium production
Arsenic in drinking water
Auramine production
Boot and shoe manufacture and repair
Chimney sweeping
Coal gasification
Coal tar distillation
Coke (fuel) production
Furniture and cabinet making
Haematite mining (underground) with exposure to radon
Secondhand smoke
Iron and steel founding
Isopropanol manufacture (strong-acid process)
Magenta dye manufacturing
Occupational exposure as a painter
Paving and roofing with coal-tar pitch
Rubber industry
Occupational exposure of strong inorganic acid mists containing sulphuric acid
Naturally occurring mixtures of aflatoxins (produced by funghi)
Alcoholic beverages
Areca nut - often chewed with betel leaf
Betel quid without tobacco
Betel quid with tobacco
Coal tar pitches
Coal tars
Indoor emissions from household combustion of coal
Diesel exhaust
Mineral oils, untreated and mildly treated
Phenacetin, a pain and fever reducing drug
Plants containing aristolochic acid (used in Chinese herbal medicine)
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) - widely used in electrical equipment in the past, banned in many countries in the 1970s
Chinese-style salted fish
Shale oils
Soots
Smokeless tobacco products
Wood dust
Processed meat
Acetaldehyde
4-Aminobiphenyl
Aristolochic acids and plants containing them
Asbestos
Arsenic and arsenic compounds
Azathioprine
Benzene
Benzidine
Benzo[a]pyrene
Beryllium and beryllium compounds
Chlornapazine (N,N-Bis(2-chloroethyl)-2-naphthylamine)
Bis(chloromethyl)ether
Chloromethyl methyl ether
1,3-Butadiene
1,4-Butanediol dimethanesulfonate (Busulphan, Myleran)
Cadmium and cadmium compounds
Chlorambucil
Methyl-CCNU (1-(2-Chloroethyl)-3-(4-methylcyclohexyl)-1-nitrosourea; Semustine)
Chromium(VI) compounds
Ciclosporin
Contraceptives, hormonal, combined forms (those containing both oestrogen and a progestogen)
Contraceptives, oral, sequential forms of hormonal contraception (a period of oestrogen-only followed by a period of both oestrogen and a progestogen)
Cyclophosphamide
Diethylstilboestrol
Dyes metabolized to benzidine
Epstein-Barr virus
Oestrogens, nonsteroidal
Oestrogens, steroidal
Oestrogen therapy, postmenopausal
Ethanol in alcoholic beverages
Erionite
Ethylene oxide
Etoposide alone and in combination with cisplatin and bleomycin
Formaldehyde
Gallium arsenide
Helicobacter pylori (infection with)
Hepatitis B virus (chronic infection with)
Hepatitis C virus (chronic infection with)
Herbal remedies containing plant species of the genus Aristolochia
Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (infection with)
Human papillomavirus type 16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59 and 66
Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type-I
Melphalan
Methoxsalen (8-Methoxypsoralen) plus ultraviolet A-radiation
4,4’-methylene-bis(2-chloroaniline) (MOCA)
MOPP and other combined chemotherapy including alkylating agents
Mustard gas (sulphur mustard)
2-Naphthylamine
Neutron radiation
Nickel compounds
4-(N-Nitrosomethylamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK)
N-Nitrosonornicotine (NNN)
Opisthorchis viverrini (infection with)
Outdoor air pollution
Particulate matter in outdoor air pollution
Phosphorus-32, as phosphate
Plutonium-239 and its decay products (may contain plutonium-240 and other isotopes), as aerosols
Potato Crisp (chips)
Power Lines
Radioiodines, short-lived isotopes, including iodine-131, from atomic reactor accidents and nuclear weapons detonation (exposure during childhood)
Radio Masts
Radionuclides, α-particle-emitting, internally deposited
Radionuclides, β-particle-emitting, internally deposited
Radium-224 and its decay products
Radium-226 and its decay products
Radium-228 and its decay products
Radon-222 and its decay products
Schistosoma haematobium (infection with)
Silica, crystalline (inhaled in the form of quartz or cristobalite from occupational sources)
Solar radiation
Talc containing asbestiform fibres
Tamoxifen
2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin
Thiotepa (1,1’,1”-phosphinothioylidynetrisaziridine)
Thorium-232 and its decay products, administered intravenously as a colloidal dispersion of thorium-232 dioxide
Treosulfan
Ortho-toluidine
Vinyl chloride
Ultraviolet radiation
Well water
Wood dust
X-radiation and gamma radiation
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