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- THE WEEK, Page 25HEALTH & SCIENCEEating Causes Cancer
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- Researchers find that many "natural" chemicals are carcinogens
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- If a man-made chemical at any dose causes cancer in
- laboratory animals, the law says it can't be used as a food
- additive. But a wide variety of naturally occurring chemicals,
- found in all sorts of foods, can cause cancer in animals as
- well. A team of researchers from the University of California,
- Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory has tested 80
- such natural carcinogens. Its conclusion, reported in Science,
- is that natural chemicals may be significantly riskier than
- artificial ones. Among the foods that cause problems: wine,
- lettuce, apples, mangoes and whole-wheat toast.
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- At least, the chemicals in these foods are carcinogenic in
- rats, which may or may not mean anything for humans; and they
- are tested at very high doses, which may not apply at the
- levels people normally ingest. And that, the authors emphasize,
- is the point: the traditional method used to assess cancer risk
- is flawed and should be reformed.
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