Word: carcinogenicity
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...legal moves now being considered by both manufacturers and consumer groups against the FDA'S latest action, critics of the ban can hardly claim that they were caught by surprise. Ever since animal tests in the early '70s renewed concern that the chemical might be a carcinogen, the FDA has been slowly moving toward a ban. By 1972 it had taken the sweetener from its "generally recognized as safe" list and warned food and beverage companies to limit the saccharin levels in their products...
...results were dramatic. Of the 50 compounds that were known to be noncarcinogenic, only one, which happened to be a close chemical relative of a known carcinogen, caused the bacteria to mutate at a significant rate. Of the 42 other compounds, all known carcinogens, all but seven induced bacterial mutations by themselves. When the urine of rats that had been fed to three of the remaining compounds was placed in the culture dishes, it too produced mutations, suggesting that the chemicals, which may not cause cancer directly, are metabolized in the body into substances that do. With a slight change...
...discarded, they become litter that nature is unable to decompose. Moreover, many postwar products actually generate more pollution than their predecessors. Detroit's high-powered cars are far more polluting than prewar models. Even worse, pollutants can be synergistic. "If the levels of sulfur dioxide and a carcinogen [cancer producing substance] in polluted air are both doubled," Commoner explains, "the resulting hazard is much more than doubled, because sulfur dioxide inhibits the lung's self-protective mechanism and makes it more susceptible to the carcinogen...
...gives a dose of X rays to seemingly virus-free mice, they develop cancers containing virus particles. The late Dr. Francisco Duran-Reynals argued that chemicals and viruses combine to cause cancer. Now many laboratories are confirming his basic thesis: mice painted with a low dose of a known carcinogen (cancer-causing chemical) get no tumors, and neither do those exposed only to viruses; but if mice get both the virus and minute amounts of the chemical, many of them soon develop cancer...
...anti-cancer defenses break down is, in most cases, unknown. Many authorities accept the idea of some hereditary susceptibility. Sometimes there are easy, if superficial, explanations. The combination of a chemical carcinogen (cancer-causing factor) with physical irritation is plainly villainous. Cancer of the scrotum among London chimney sweeps was described by Percivall Pott in 1775. The disease disappeared when the sweeps were taught to wash themselves clean of the carcinogenic soot. Lung cancer from inhaling chromate-ore dusts and nickel-refining fumes can be prevented by the wearing of masks, coupled with adequate ventilation. Even the cancer-causing tobacco...