Cancer May be Triggered by Chemical Cocktail of Commonly Used Chemicals

First Posted: Jun 23, 2015 11:30 AM EDT

A cocktail of common chemicals may trigger cancer. Scientists have taken a look at 85 chemicals not considered carcinogenic to humans and found that 50 supported key cancer-related mechanisms at exposures found in the environment today.

There have been longstanding concerns about the combined and additive effects of everyday chemicals. That's why researchers put a team together of 174 scientists from leading research centers across 28 countries. Together, they pitched what is known about chemical mixtures against the full spectrum of cancer biology for the first time.

"This research backs up the idea that chemicals not considered harmful by themselves are combining and accumulating in our bodies to trigger cancer and might lie behind the global cancer epidemic we are witnessing," said Hemad Yasaei, cancer biologist from the Brunel University London, in a news release. "We urgently need to focus more resources to research the effect of low dose exposure to mixtures of chemicals in the food we eat, air we breathe and water we drink."

Although the incidence of many cancers has been in the rise, little research has been invested in examining the role of environmental agents. The taskforce is now calling for an increased emphasis on and support for research into low dose exposures to mixtures of environmental chemicals. Current research estimates that chemicals could be responsible for as many as one in five cancers.

"We are definitely concerned that we are now starting to see evidence of a wide range of low dose effects that are directly related to carcinogenesis, exerted by chemicals that are unavoidable in the environment," said William Goodson, lead author of the new synthesis.

The findings are published in the journal Carcinogenesis.

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TagsChemicals, Cancer, Carcinogen, Chemical Cocktail