Which Chemical is the Worst Carcinogen?

In this video, I discuss several carcinogens and discuss their designations according to the IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer). Don't be a nugget, minimize your exposure to carcinogens!

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References:

Aristolochic acid I 3:37
IARC V100A

Acetaldehyde 8:09
IARC V100E

Aflatoxins 11:11
IARC V100F

4-Aminobiphenyl 12:34
IARC V100F

Arecoline 13:16
IARC V85

Agaritine 14:20
IARC V31

Benzene 14:55
IARC V100F

Benzidine 16:33
IARC V29

Benzo[a]pyrene 17:28
IARC V92

Bis(chloromethyl)ether/chloromethyl methyl ether 18:30
IARC V100F

Butadiene 20:01
IARC V100F

Cyclosporine 20:43
IARC V100A

Dichloropropane 21:52
IARC V110

Diethylstilbestrol 24:03
IARC V100A

Ethylene oxide 25:04
IARC V100F

Formaldehyde 25:53
IARC V100F

Lindane 28:01
IARC V113

Methoxsalen 29:05
IARC Vol 100A

4,4'-Methylenebis(chloroaniline) 29:48
IARC V100F

2-Naphthylamine 30:44
IARC V100F

NNN/NNK 31:23
IARC V100E

Polychlorinated ones 33:51
IARC V100F

Phenacetin 37:43
IARC V100A

Sulfur mustard 38:40
IARC V100F

Toluidine 39:53
IARC V100F

Trichloroethylene 41:44
IARC V106

Vinyl chloride 42:36
IARC V100F

[s.v.berezin]

I am deeply shocked. Thank you for this crucial information – that alcohol may not be healthy. I may need a drink to help process this information...

[LemurG]

As someone who accidentally ate a moldy cherry tomato yesterday, my body very quickly notified me of the potential health risk

[mcrut]

I have to say, out of all the warning labels for safety, carcinogen has to be the most eerily creepy/terrifying

[mr.b]

Radiation therapist here. The most common exogenous factors we see strongly contributing to cancer development are: heavy smoking, heavy alcohol consumption, HPV, and high sun and exposure.

Here’s common examples:

I smoked a pack a day for 25 years.
I drink 5-6 drinks a week.
I do both of the above. (This one is far and away the biggest cause of preventable fatal cancer)
I got HPV in my throat, and never knew until I got cancer.
I tan or get prolonged sun exposure a couple times a week.

Avoid these risks and you’ll skip everything you could possibly prevent on your own. The rest is luck.

Just don’t eat cadmium or whatever. Also, quit vaping. We don’t know what it does to the human body, yet.

[brandonklotz]

The idea of a “Carcinogen Tier List” is just so ridiculously funny to me.

[lookitsluke]

22:50 completely agree. It always pissed me off that cleaning chemicals, and other products that can be bought at hardware stores, grocery stores, and so on, never list the chemicals included. If food products are required to list ingredients, then so should other products. I always try to find an ingredient list for chemicals I buy that I’m not familiar with, but it should 100% be listed on the package

[jimmytiddlytoo]

Fun fact: most carcinogens have multiple aromatic rings because they intercalate between DNA base pairs through Pi stacking. This often leads to gene silencing by blocking translation

[expertoflizardcorrugation]

You can avoid carcinogens for your entire life and there is still a very real chance that some cell somewhere decides that it is having a bad day and decides to make that your problem. no amount of caution will ever reduce your odds of cancer to 0 (obviously there is merit in reducing your risk). In my mind it's far more productive to improve your odds of surviving it if it happens, and chances are most of those are things you should probably be doing anyway.

[annanikolic]

For the mold one, I am disappointed you didn’t mention how prevalent black mold is in buildings across the world. Obviously no one will purposely eat a ton of moldy food. But I myself have experienced living in an apartment infested with black mold and within 2 months I became extremely sick, constantly had respiratory issue, extreme brain fog especially when entering my bedroom (where the mold was most concentrated), mood disturbances and even developed asthma. I would cough up phlegm that would literally, no exaggeration, have spores inside it. When I saw that in the bathroom sink I couldn’t stop crying. When I saw how much black mold was in my AC unit alone I was terrified. Everyone I show the pictures to I have to give a warning because it’s that disturbing. And that common.

I know so many other people who have experienced the same—this being NYC, which is supposably the best city in the world. There is very little tenant protection for this despite mold being a huge tenant’s rights violation in NYC. I am so lucky I was able to move out of my lease. Many people don’t have that option and have to live for years in toxic environments. There’s even a phenomenon called “Sick building syndrome” where people who feel extremely ill inside their apartment buildings feel better once they go outside. This is due to toxins such as black mold and water damage as well as a lack of airflow or light in many “modern” apartments, which in all seriousness rival tenement housing in terms of toxicity. Mold is a huge human rights issue that remains ignored in favor of landowner profit.

[lissettelopez]

For years, I was the sole Chemical inspector for Ortho-toluidine coming into the Houston ship channel. I remember a few times the whole plant was being evacuated into inside safe zones because I was just getting samples from the ship. One time while the ship was in port, myself and the ship “pumpy” were pulling the samples and my SCBA ran out of air midway in sampling. But I’ve worked hundreds of chemicals in my career so it was nothing extraordinary. We transported them in rubber coated bottles for in case they broke. And it’s MSDS numbers were all 4 to the max. The best thing that ever happened to me was leaving that career field.

[captaincat]

I used to work for a shoddy company in the UK that made printer inks. We were instructed to clean ourselves with MEK ( Methyl-ethyl-ketone ) . i trusted my supervisors as a young man. I know now that it is toxic, causing neurological illnesses. No long term studies exist for it's carcinogenic effects. I felt nausea often after finishing our shift. Thank you Lyson Fluids ! I'll be seeing you in court soon if you are reading this.

[purplealice]

I had an uncle who was a career Marine. He spent a lot of time at Camp LeJeune. Once I saw all the ads for legal defense regarding the polluted water at LeJeune. I googled his name, and discovered an obituary. He had lived in an assisted-living facility before his death, and cause of death was "complications of Alzheimer's." The last time I saw him was at my wedding, 49 years ago. But he had five kids.

[JohnnyWrongo-bl]

Cancer is not always a death sentence. I had lymphoma at stage 4 when treatment started. Almost nine years later I am alive, healthy, and hove great fondness for medical science, in spite of its issues.

[johnSmith-myyj]

30 years ago, before the internet, I wanted to try out an old synthesis I found in the library. Went to the chemistry shop, asked for a bottle of benzene, not knowing sales of the stuff had been restricted decades ago. They did sell toluene, which was fine, since the benzene was only needed as solvent, not a reagent.
Ten years later, when I did my military service in the military pharmacy in Evere (Belgium), I came across bottles of pure formaldehyde. The doctors prescribed it as treatment for sweaty feet: dilute with water, and soak your feet for 15 minutes every day.

[CpungMaster]

The DNA bases when they see an electrophile: is for me? 🥺👉👈

[scottyV]

I’m surprised you didn’t put benzene higher since we treated this as one of the worst things you could get exposed to in the lab. We pretty much treated it as liquid leukemia.

[jens]

Having worked with 2-Naphtylamine: You have to synthesize it yourself cause no one sells it. It's an autoclave synthesize and you get greeted with a red paste, it is impossible to filter creeps up the walls of everything you want it to recrystallize from (steel, glass, filterpaper and plastic) crystallizing on the edges and falling eventually of them in the fumehood. The crystals are so fine, they immediately spread over your entire fumehood, breaking apart into much finer dust that manages to simultaneously stick to everything yet also aerosolising really quickly, this and the articles i read about it, conveniently causing bladder cancer in like every subject it comes across makes me never want to work with it again :3

[ruthhorowitz]

I used to work as a health and safety officer at a university. I once did a breakdown of what's wrong with wd 40 sds to teach researchers what to look for and how to find missing information. A video on how dangerous is the chemical in your home would be great. WD40 btw is pretty dangerous. That sds is downright criminal in my opinion.

[christos]

I can’t believe vinyl chloride wasn’t classified as a hazardous chemical and was allowed to be in the crash that Norfolk southern’s neglect and mismanagement caused. I wish the best and hope help can come to the people who will suffer because of it.

[LuX]

Also, if you have the Asian flush or cannot process alcohol normally (like red flushing + other side effects), acetaldehyde stays in your system far too long and in essence, drink for drink (vs normal process) increases your exposure to cancer :/

Important UPDATE: While the ALDH2 enzyme primarily targets acetaldehyde, it is also involved in detoxifying other aldehydes, including 4-HNE (associated with cancer, etc). So, individuals with the ALDH2 mutation may have a reduced capacity to metabolize and eliminate 4-HNE effectively. 4-HNE essentially comes from the peroxidation/consumption of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFA). So we suck at alcohol, but we also suck at foods high in PUFA's. Lol.