It is estimated that about 10 percent of human cancers are caused by industrial toxins. Most of the industrial toxic chemicals and heavy metals such as Lead, Arsenic, Mercury, Aluminium, Nickel and Cadmium are known carcinogens that cause cancer after entering the human body. Lead can enter the human body through canned food, cooking utensils and rusted water pipes. Cadmium is found in instant tea, coffee, soft drinks, fungicides, nickel-cadmium batteries and plastic items. Mercury can find its way into the human body through paints and dental fillings. Aluminium is found in certain drugs, deodorants, aluminium foils and utensils. Other occupational carcinogens include benzene, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), diesel exhaust, hair dyes, mineral oils and painting materials. These industrial toxins accumulate in the breast, brain, bones, glands, hair and fat tissues. The bioaccumulation of these industrial toxins in different tissues and organs of the human body causes cancer by damaging the cellular DNA.
The incidence of lung and skin cancers is much higher among tanners, oil refinery workers and insecticide sprayers due to arsenic. The risk of lung cancer is exceptionally high among shipyard workers, demolition experts and brake-lining mechanics due to asbestos. Hospital & laboratory staff and manufacturers of wood products are exposed to formaldehyde, which can cause cancer. Studies have revealed that the women living in vicinity of the toxic-waste dumpsites have the highest rate of breast cancer due to certain chemicals, which mimic the activity of oestrogen. It has been observed that many weak environmental oestrogenic chemicals have synergistically enhanced combined effect, for example, a combination of Dieldrin, Endosulfan and Toxaphene produces thousand times enhanced oestrogenic effect.
In a recent study conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency of the USA, more than 400 toxic chemical carcinogens were found in the human body (48 in fat tissue, 40 in breast, 73 in liver and 250 in blood). A study done by Dr. Hildegarde L.A. Staninger, an expert in industrial toxicology has revealed that the tissue samples of patients suffering from cancer of the prostate are found to have abnormally high levels of Arsenic, Chlordane & Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT).