Let’s say someone is a cigarette smoker. Each time they light a cigarette, are they chancing the fact that it could contain the carcinogen that will start the cancer that will be an issue for them years later, or is it a gradual build up of carcinogens in the body eventually causing lung cancer? Like, could the hypothetical hot dog I’m eating right now be responsible for cancer years down the line?
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A carcinogen is in every cigarette. If it causes the bad type of damage or not is random.
Cancer happens when a cell is damaged in a very specific way. It’s growth control must break, it’s self-destruct must break, and it must still be considered a healthy cell by your immune system.
Each time a cell is exposed to a carcinogen it causes random damages. But if only one or two of the things are true the cell will just die and be replaced by a healthy cell. But if all these things happen you have a cell that grows out of control and your immune system doesn’t recognize it as problematic I.E. a tumor grows.
So the more you’re exposed to carcinogens the higher the chance that something bad happens somewhere.
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