JanDrew! JanDrew recommends avoiding urinals
This could put Hulda Clark right out of business. It is mothballs, not
amalgams that are the danger.
Nope. Not amalgam. Mothballs! JanDrew cautiously recommends avoiding
urinals. I saw this in the New York Times!
This is also called the "Cancers Up the Nose" post.
January 28, 2001
Mothball Ingredient Causes Cancer, Government Says
By REUTERS
WASHINGTON - Naphthalene, which gives mothballs and public restroom
deodorizers their distinctive aroma, causes cancer in rats, US government
researchers said on Thursday.
Rats who breathed naphthalene fumes developed cancer at a rate high enough
to worry scientists at the National Toxicology Program (NTP), who must now
decide whether people have the same risk.
The rats especially developed rare cancers in the nose, the researchers
found.
``The rats in the study were exposed by inhalation, just as most people are,
in doses comparable to some human consumer and workplace exposures,'' the
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, which administers the
NTP, said in a statement.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Environmental Protection
Agency and other agencies suggested the tests after some German workers
exposed to naphthalene developed cancers including larynx, gastric, nasal,
and colon cancer.
The report was the 500th issued by the NTP using laboratory rats.
``Since NTP was established in 1978, its reports have changed how substances
are handled in occupational and home settings, and in the more general
environment,'' it said in a statement.
Some chemicals restricted because of its tests include tetrachloroethylene
and carbon tetrachloride, once used in home cleaning fluids; mirex, which
was restricted in its use as a pesticide and fire retardant; benzene, an
ingredient in gasoline, and phenolphthalein, once an active ingredient in
most over-the-counter laxatives.
``Unlike the old cliche that 'everything causes cancer', almost half the
chemicals tested do not produce tumors in laboratory rodents, and with a few
rare exceptions, chemicals that cause tumors or other diseases in rodents
eventually are found to cause similar if not identical problems in humans,''
the NTP said.
