What is a enviromental carcinogen?

Answer 1

Let's do the terms part first:

A carcinogen is any physical or chemical agent that initiates cancer in an individual.

Environmental relates to your surroundings, not something that happens as a one time event (get sprayed with a nasty chemical) or happens because of your genetic make-up. Your environment is not limited to the great outdoors.

So an environmental carcinogen is a material or agent in your surroundings, probably at low concentrations, that impacts you over the course of months or years.

Examples:

1. If you smoke, the cancer you seek out by your activity is not environmental but the cancers that other, non-smokers, in your home develop are environmental.

2. If you drink water with benzene in it or breathe benzene varours from a nearby plant over the course of years, your looking at environmentally caused cancers.

3. If you live in a sunny area and work in the sun often without protection, the skin cancers would be environmentally.

4. The asbestos in your insulation that breaks off and floats through the air causing lung cancer is an environmental problem

Answer 2

An environmental carcinogen is a substance in the environment that has the potential to cause cancer. These can include chemicals, radiation, and other pollutants that come from sources like air pollution, water contamination, and industrial processes. Exposure to environmental carcinogens has been linked to an increased risk of developing cancer.