why do seemingly random things “give you cancer”?

Question

Every time I see someone touch oil or breathe in fumes or dust( or other dirty things), I always see “hes gonna get cancer” in comments. I always kind of just accepted it as truth, but do they actually give you cancer? like how can breathing in some dust make your cells divide weirdly and give you cancer?

In: 93

Answer 1

Usually it’s because it either directly damages the DNA of cells in the body, or it inhibits the mechanisms that the body uses to kill off cells that got corrupted. This might be because it’s radioactive to some degree, or it has a chemical that reacts with our body chemistry.