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TIME - Man of the Year
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1993-04-08
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THE WEEK, Page 25HEALTH & SCIENCEEating Causes Cancer
Researchers find that many "natural" chemicals are carcinogens
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.
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.