eli5: Why does it seem like everything is carcinogenic and does that mean if it is, it causes cancer?

Question

I feel like I am always hearing about how things are carcinogenic, like red meat or air conditioners or aspartame. Why does it seem like *so* many things are carcinogenic and does that mean they cause cancer? Because it’s starting to feel like everything causes cancer…

This is the type of thing that gets my anxiety going so I’d love if someone who understands this better than I do can explain it.

In: 354

Answer 1

Some additional comments:

40% of people will develop cancer in their lives. [(link)](https://www.cancer.org/cancer/risk-prevention/understanding-cancer-risk/lifetime-probability-of-developing-or-dying-from-cancer.html) That’s a lot, so it makes sense to do what we can to avoid it.

However, cancer in some sense is just a risk of aging. The older you get, the dramatically more likely to develop it.

In addition, in these studies, we don’t know what the additional risk of cancer is, or how serious those cancers are.

There is a cost in taking cancer too seriously. If you decrease your risk of cancer by 1% by never eating red meat or going to the beach, that might not be worth the cost.