carcinogen

The Devilishly Hard Question I’m Asked All the Time

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 16 May 2025 19:17:39 +0000

This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette.

Usually, the questioner has seen or heard something, often through social media, about a loathsome substance that is set to destroy their life or about one that promises to improve their health “naturally.” The answer to the question is almost always “no, it isn’t true, but ... The reason for the qualifier is that science isn’t white or black, it is best seen as several shades of gray.

Confronting Nefarious Nitrosamines

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 09 May 2025 20:44:53 +0000

“Boil the nipples!” was the advice given in 1984 by the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. to parents who were bottle feeding their infants or calming them with pacifiers. The presence of nitrosamines, compounds that had been found to cause cancer in animals, had been recently detected in rubber products and the concern was that they could be transferred to babies.

Skeletons in the Alcohol Cabinet Should Make Everyone Think Twice About Drinking

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 23:52:37 +0000

This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette

“Moderation in everything” is a popular slogan. It seems to go hand in hand with the cornerstone of toxicology, namely Paracelsus’s famous dictum that “only the dose makes the poison.”

We use it justify eating just a few potato chips instead of the whole bag, a spoonful of ice cream instead of the whole container, and a glass of wine instead of half a bottle.

Are Sex and Pickleball Keys to Longevity?

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 14 Feb 2025 22:44:36 +0000

This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette.

Want to lead a long life? Play pickleball and have sex. Who says so? Dan Buettner, a guy who knows something about longevity. After all, he is responsible for popularizing the concept of “blue zones,” regions of the world where people apparently have exceptionally long lives. And therein lies an interesting and somewhat controversial story.

Red Dye #3 Isn’t a Felon Lurking in the Food Supply

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 24 Jan 2025 22:13:58 +0000

This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette.

In the late 19th century, Germany was at the forefront of chemical research and it was an ideal place for Purdue University chemistry professor Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley to spend a sabbatical to broaden his horizons.

Instant Coffee and Acrylamide: Should You Be Worried?

Hosna Akhgary — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 16:24:27 +0000

Coffee is a staple beverage for millions of people worldwide, consumed in endless scenarios: catching up with a friend, powering through an intense study session, or simply kickstarting the day.

From the classic drip coffee and trendy cold brew to the precision of the French press and the intensity of espresso, there are countless ways to make the perfect cup of joe. The key difference between each brewing method is how the water interacts with the coffee grounds and the time it takes to brew.

Should You Be Worried About Eating Burned Toast?

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 21:30:09 +0000

This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette.

Waxing Lyrical About Fruit Wax

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 20:15:59 +0000

Apparently Snow White's wicked stepmother knew something about chemistry and toxicology. She brewed up a remarkable poison to put the anemic young lady into a state of suspended animation. But how to get her to ingest it? Who, thought the evil queen, could resist a bright, shiny apple? Certainly not Snow White. And you know the rest of the story.

Concerns About Smoked Foods Heat Up

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 17:01:14 +0000

This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette.

Cavemen in the Stone Age didn’t have many luxuries. They had, however, learned to make fire by banging together flintstones or rubbing two sticks together, and that at least made their cold and dingy dwellings more comfortable.

A Carcinogen in Bread?

Nancy Liu-Sullivan, PhD — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 00:17:16 +0000

I ventured into homemade bread-making at the start of the pandemic two years ago. My first try failed miserably. The bread turned out to be a shapeless, mushy mess. What ingredient was missing? Possibly potassium bromate!

Non-smoker’s lung cancer and the hidden link

Nancy Liu-Sullivan, PhD — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 19:08:52 +0000

The link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer is widely acknowledged. But not everyone who smokes gets lung cancer and not everyone who gets lung cancer is a smoker. How does one contract the so-called non-smoker’s lung cancer? The answer, one might say, is blowing in the wind. And that wind may be blowing a gas called radon.

A Broccoli Conundrum

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 01 Oct 2021 21:20:15 +0000

Life is full of difficult decisions, isn’t it? Should you put broccoli on a pizza before or after sliding it into the oven? Fret not. This decision can be made a little easier by examining the properties of sulphoraphane, touted by a plethora of books, magazines, websites and nutritional gurus as being responsible for broccoli’s anti-cancer effect. But I’ll let you in on a secret. While sulphoraphane may have anti-cancer properties, it is not found in broccoli!

Why does California want to put a cancer warning on coffee?

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 19:30:00 +0000

I’ve commented many times on what I think is a ludicrous piece of legislation in California known as Proposition 65. This requires that the public be informed by signs, as is the case on entering Disneyland, or on product labels, about any possible exposure to a chemical “that is known to the State of California to cause reproductive harm or cancer.” And there are over 900 of these that are accused of being an affront to health! So what’s wrong with Prop 65 warning against dangerous substances? Sounds like motherhood and apple pie.

The Root in Root Beer is Sassafras

Ada McVean B.Sc. — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 18:52:02 +0000

Unless you’re participating in a spelling bee or playing Fallout New Vegas, you probably don’t think about sassafras much, but you might still ingest it regularly. It is, or at least once was, the main flavourful ingredient in root beer.

A Leg-Raising Experiment

OSS — Fri, 02 Jun 2017 16:39:24 +0000

Bladder cancer in humans has been associated with cigarette smoking. Since dogs can also develop this deadly cancer, they can serve as model for evaluating treatment methods. In a study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, beagles were exposed to a carcinogenic chemical from cigarette smoke. It turned out that those dogs urinating every four hours had only one third as much carcinogen left in their bladder as the animals voiding every eight hours. Indeed some surveys on humans have also shown that in rural areas bladder cancer is less frequent than in urban areas.