Cancer In The Workplace

Cancer has had an increasing impact in our world and the lives of others. The factors of this disease are all around us. Cancer can be caused by dangerous environmental substances called carcinogens, which are substances that are known to cause cancer. Overall, this disease is caused by changes in genes and it alters the way our cells function. Exposure to particular environmental substances can cause damage to your DNA. Some of these exposures are things such as chemicals, tobacco smoke, or even radiation. People can avoid these exposures like tobacco smoke and radiation with good practice. However, whenever we step outside, unfortunately some substances are already beginning to swarm inside of us. A variety of carcinogens are in our everyday
Other factors can very well determine how and whether cancer could develop in your body such as family history, old age and types of viral infections. Workers in certain industries are exposed to carcinogens during their jobs. The amount and duration of these carcinogens can affect a worker’s health and possibly cause them cancer. The most common chemicals that are found in workplaces are asbestos, lead, benzene, and vinyl chloride. The longer they endure these dangerous chemicals, the more likely their cells are to become damaged.The United States have created regulations in the workplace to limit the amount of exposure to workers. Outside of the workplace people can limit their exposure by staying healthy and checking their household for any carcinogens. The two organizations that determine what environmental substances are harmful are the National Toxicology Program (NTP) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). These two programs use scientific evidence to create a list of carcinogens that are harmful to humans. The National Toxicology Program in particular, publishes a report on carcinogens every few years. It is formed from parts of several different government agencies. In the 2014 edition, they listed 56 known human carcinogens. This list includes the process they use to prepare the report and the criteria they use to list a substance as a carcinogen. The report places the carcinogens into two different group agents. Its first group is called “ Known to be human carcinogens” and its second group is called “ Reasonably anticipated to be human carcinogens.” The International Agency for Research on Cancer also produces reports that could increase the risk of cancer in humans. Its major goal is to identify the causes of cancer. The IARC hires expert scientists to analyze the evidence of the agents that can increase the risk of cancer. The scientists mostly focus on two main