Health

CARCINOGENS

Carcinogen are any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that is an agent directly involved in causing cancer. This may be due to the ability to damage the genomes or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes. A known human carcinogen means there is sufficient evidence of a cause of cancer. Such determination requires evidence from epidemiologic, humans who were exposed to the substance of question. Tobacco causes lung cancer, UV light causes skin cancer, X-Ray/Gamma radiation causes thyroid. You can have DNA damage by carcinogens. Co-carcinogens are chemicals that do not necessarily cause cancer on their own, but promote the activity of other carcinogens in causing cancer.

After the carcinogen enters the body, the body makes an attempt to eliminate it through a process called biotransformation. The purpose of these reactions is to make the carcinogen more water-soluble so that it can be removed from the body. However, in some cases, these reactions can also convert a less toxic carcinogen into a more toxic carcinogen.

DNA is nucleophilic, therefore soluble carbon electrophiles are carcinogenic, because DNA attacks them. For example, some alkenes are toxic ated by human enzymes to produce an electrophilic epoxide. DNA attacks the epoxide, and is bound permanently to it. This is the mechanism behind the carcinogenicity of benzo[a]pryene in tobacco smoke, other aromatics, aflatoxin and mustard gas.

Not all types of electromagnetic radiation are carcinogenic. Low-energy waves on the electromagnetic spectrum including radio waves,microwaves,infrared radiation and visible light are thought not to be, because they have insufficient energy to break chemical  bonds. Evidence for carcinogenic effects of non-ionizing radiation is generally inconclusive, though there are some documented cases of radar technicians with prolonged high exposure experiencing significantly higher cancer incidence.Higher-energy radiation, including ultraviolet radiation  (present in sunlight), x-rays, and gamma radiation, generally is carcinogenic, if received in sufficient doses.

Low level ionizing radiation may induce irreparable DNA damage (leading to replicational and transcriptional errors needed for neoplasia or may trigger viral interactions) leading to premature aging and cancer. 

 

                                                                   Tobacco

                                               by Alyssa Evans

 

Tobacco is a product prepared from the leaves of the tobacco plant by curing them. The plant is categorized within the genus Nicotiana of the Solanaceae (nightshade) family. While more than 70 species of tobacco are known, the chief commercial crop is N. tabacum. The more potent species N. rustica is also widely used around the world.Tobacco is not good for your body in many ways. Each day the number of teens smoking and using tobacco products grow today it is +3,200 under 18. 9 out of 10 start smoking before they turn 18 98% of smokers start at teens or young 20’s. Some of the effects of smoking are coronary heart disease, lung cancer/lung disease, bladder cancer, and kidney cancer. A myth is that once you are addicted to tobacco there is no use in stopping the damage is done, that is a ly is you stop than the body starts to repair itself so when you stop you can get better. Another one is that smoking can help you relax when actually nicotine is a stimulant which speeds the body up, so when you think you relaxing you getting more energy. Dipping tobacco effects it can have on the body, you can get stomach and mouth cancers due to the chewing tobacco and other chemicals in the chew. Most of the time you hear chewing tobacco called snuff but that’s wrong. Snuff is a powdery form of tobacco and its not around anymore like it used to be. We are in a time where we get more education on the heath problem on tobacco than our parents did. In the olden days a 5 year old could go into a store or vending machine and buy tobacco products and use them in front of people like in the store and everything. In this day if we were to do that we could get in surver problem with the law. We don’t just have the teachers teaching us about them we have our parents telling us not to and sometimes an example not to like a family member who did and died, got sick, or quit and realized how bad it is for them.

 

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