“Cancer risk from chemical cocktail”
Articles in The Daily Mail and The Times (£) on Tuesday 23rd June 2015 claim that new research shows exposure to low doses of a ‘cocktail’ of chemicals found in everyday household items can cause cancer. In fact the research does not show this link. Instead the series of reviews calls for a change to the regulatory system, which currently investigates one chemical at a time, to investigate mixtures of chemicals. It is published as a supplement of the journal Carcinogenesis.
Fiona Osgun, health information officer at Cancer Research UK, said:
“To be clear, this research does not show that everyday chemicals cause cancer. While it talks about whether some chemicals may be able to affect cells, there’s a big difference between theory and practice. This review raises some important questions about how everyday chemicals in the environment might affect our health, but unfortunately doesn’t give us the answers.”
Dr Hemad Yasaei, cancer biologist, Brunel University London, said:
“This is just a provisional study and it’s not saying that these items will all give you cancer. It is just suggesting that regulatory bodies may need to think about incorporating additional safe guards to test the effects of what happens when these chemicals accumulate or combine with others at low concentrations.”
Document type: For The Record
Published: 23 June 2015
Source: Sense About Science
