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Likely risk
One-click glossary
about this glossary tool
Situations where there is a likely risk of cancer involve exposure to an agent that is a known or probable carcinogen.
- Occupational cancer reasonably attributable to specific agents
- Particular workplaces, job classifications or occupational environments
- Work using insecticides apart from arsenic-containing compounds
- Smoking marijuana
- Occupational exposure to cytotoxic drugs
- Prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke
- Formaldehyde emitted from building products
- Cancer attributable to preserved timber in playgrounds
- Contamination of food by vinyl chloride
- Benzene contamination of specific food or drink products
- Living near a properly-operating nuclear facility
- Asbestos in drinking water
- Contamination of food by aflatoxins in developed countries
- Environmental contamination by polychlorinated biphenyls
- Eating TCDD-contaminated food
- Living near waste incinerator
- Living near a contaminated site
- Acrylamide in (deep fried) food
- Nitrosamines in beer, cured meats and other food
- Leaching of fire retardant from children’s sleep ware
| Work using insecticides apart from arsenic-containing compounds | |
| Situation | Work using insecticides apart from arsenic-containing compounds |
| Exposure | Workers manufacturing & applying insecticides |
| Carcinogen | Occupational exposure to multiple insecticides |
| Principal route of exposure | Dermal and inhalation |
| Target organ (or tumour type) | Lung, multiple myeloma, NHL |
| Comment | No single agent has been shown to predominatly account for risk |
| Smoking marijuana | |
| Situation | Smoking marijuana |
| Exposure | Smokers of marijuana |
| Carcinogen | Smoke contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and other compounds |
| Principal route of exposure | Inhalation |
| Target organ (or tumour type) | Lung |
| Comment | Currently available data do not clearly establish causality |
| Prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke | |
| Situation | Prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke |
| Exposure | Children whose mothers smoke during pregnancy |
| Carcinogen |
Tobacco smoke
|
| Principal route of exposure | Transplacental |
| Target organ (or tumour type) | Leukaemia |
| Comment | One of a many environmental pollutants implicated in epidemiological studies of childhood cancer |
| Situation |
Asbestos in drinking water
|
| Exposure |
Particular communities
|
| Carcinogen |
Asbestos
|
| Principal route of exposure |
Ingestion
|
| Target organ (or tumour type) |
Colo-rectum and possibly other sites
|
| Comment |
Inference of hazard from bioassay data
|
| Situation |
Contamination of food by aflatoxins in developed countries
|
| Exposure |
Whole population
|
| Carcinogen |
Aflatoxins
|
| Principal route of exposure |
Ingestion
|
| Target organ (or tumour type) |
Liver
|
| Comment |
Routine monitoring to prevent contamination.
|
| Situation |
Environmental contamination by polychlorinated biphenyls
|
| Exposure |
Whole population
|
| Carcinogen |
Polychlorinated
Biphenyl congeners
|
| Principal route of exposure | Inhalation, dermal |
| Target organ (or tumour type) |
NHL
|
| Comment |
Levels in tissues and bodily fluids falling over time
|
| Situation |
Living near waste incinerator
|
| Exposure |
Specific local populations
|
| Carcinogen |
TCDD
|
| Principal route of exposure |
Inhalation, oral
|
| Target organ (or tumour type) |
All cancer combined
|
| Comment |
Marked reduction in TCDD exposure in developed countries during last 2 decades
|
| Situation |
Acrylamide in (deep fried) food
|
| Exposure |
Consumers of particular products and possible whole population
|
| Carcinogen |
Acrylamide
|
| Principal route of exposure |
Oral
|
| Target organ (or tumour type) |
Colo-rectum
|
| Comment |
Altered of food pro-cesssing to minimize contamination, regard-less of cancer detection.
|
| Situation |
Nitrosamines in beer, cured meats and other food
|
| Exposure |
Persons eating relatively large amounts of processed meat
|
| Carcinogen |
N-nitrosodimethyl-amine and possibly other N-nitroso compounds
|
| Principal route of exposure |
Ingestion
|
| Target organ (or tumour type) |
Stomach, and possibly other sites
|
| Comment |
Bioassay & metabolism by human tissue provide unequivocal evidence of hazard
|
| Situation |
Leaching of fire retardant from children’s sleep ware
|
| Exposure |
Infants
|
| Carcinogen |
Tris(2,3-dibromopropyl) phosphate
|
| Principal route of exposure |
Dermal & oral
|
| Target organ (or tumour type) |
Not clear
|
| Comment |
Direct evidence of absorption from clothing.
|
This information is based on peer review research published in the journal: B.W. Stewart, Banding carcinogenic risks in developed countries: A procedural basis for qualitative assessment, Mutat. Res.: Rev. Mutat. Res. (2008), doi:10.1016/j.mrrev.2007.11.007.
This page was last updated on: Wednesday, March 9, 2016
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