Chemical Carcinogenesis

Abstract

Chemicals—in the workplace, in the environment, and in the diet—may be the single most important cause of human cancers (Table 1). Many scientists estimate that at least 60 percent and perhaps as many as 90 percent of the 655,000 cases of cancer that will be discovered in the United States this year will have been caused by environmental factors, mostly chemicals. Almost 1000 chemicals have been reported to produce tumors in man or other animals, and many times that number are suspect.

Table 1 Some Chemicals That Are Recognized to Be Carcinogens in Humans