The World Health
Organisation (WHO) announced earlier this week processed meats
were 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.
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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.
According to the IARC “Contraceptives, oral,
sequential forms of hormonal contraception” can also contribute to contracting
the disease.
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 is the full list:
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
116. X-radiation and gamma radiation
