Can clothes cause cancer? Carcinogens that are easily overlooked in daily life

Recently, the State Administration for Market Regulation conducted random inspections. During the inspection, a piece of fashionable women's clothing was found to contain a carcinogenic aromatic amine dye called "benzidine" that exceeded the standard by a very serious amount.

The reporter's investigation revealed that dyes synthesized from carcinogenic aromatic amines, when in long-term contact with the human body, their harmful ingredients are absorbed by the skin and decompose under special conditions to produce more than 20 kinds of carcinogenic aromatic amines, forming carcinogenic aromatic amine compounds. After activation, they change the DNA structure of the human body, which may cause lesions and induce malignant tumor substances, leading to malignant diseases such as bladder cancer, ureteral cancer, and renal pelvis cancer.

What’s going on? Clothes also contain carcinogens and can induce so many terrible diseases. It’s scary... Today I’m going to talk to you about this and what hidden carcinogens are in our lives.

01. Carcinogen in women's clothing - benzidine

The carcinogen in this women's clothing is benzidine, also known as 4,4'-diaminobiphenyl. The molecular formula is (4-H2NC6H4─)2. This is a dye ingredient. For example, the once popular Congo red dye is produced by the reaction of benzidine, and other benzidine-derived dyes also involve many colors. Common ones include direct black BN, direct dark green B, direct red brown M, direct reddish red GB, direct yellow brown 3G and direct yellow brown D3G, etc.

However, this ingredient was later found to be carcinogenic and belongs to a class of carcinogens, that is, substances that are clearly carcinogenic.

In fact, many substances related to benzidine are listed as carcinogens.

It is generally believed that benzidine can cause bladder cancer and pancreatic cancer, etc., and industries such as leather, shoemaking, and textiles are all high-risk groups for bladder cancer.

Therefore, many countries have already banned benzidine dyes. For example, Germany banned 22 kinds of aromatic amine dyes in 1994. my country's "National Basic Safety Technical Specifications for Textile Products" implemented on January 1, 2005 prohibits the production, sale and import of textile products containing degradable aromatic amine dyes.

So this company is really powerful. They can ship products 20 times higher than the standard.

02. What are the invisible carcinogens in our lives?

Carcinogens have been of particular concern to many people in recent years, not only because the symptoms of cancer are difficult to accept, but also because we have very limited ways to deal with cancer. Therefore, once many people have cancer, it is difficult to treat. In this case, we can only further strengthen the management of carcinogens, but the list of carcinogens itself is very large.

1. Carcinogens that affect us in daily life include: alcohol, tobacco, aflatoxin, betel nut, etc.

Everyone is familiar with tobacco and alcohol, but many people may not pay attention to aflatoxin, which often appears in moldy grains and grain products.

Many people store food for too long in inappropriate conditions, which leads to mold. Many people think that they can just clean it and continue to eat it. However, Aspergillus flavus contains an ingredient called aflatoxin, which is extremely toxic and can easily cause poisoning. What's more troublesome is that it is a carcinogen.

So be careful at home and throw away moldy food in time.

2. In addition, some carcinogens are also worthy of attention. For example, hot drinks over 65 degrees can cause cancer.

A study in The Lancet Oncology pointed out that research in China, Turkey and South American countries found that people in these regions are accustomed to drinking water, coffee or tea above 65°C or 70°C , and their risk of esophageal cancer also increases accordingly.

Other common Class 2A carcinogens include frying, lead compounds, red meat (consumption), etc., which are also worthy of attention.

2A, probably carcinogenic to humans, means limited evidence of carcinogenicity to humans, but sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity to experimental animals.