Every day you are exposed to chemicals, it’s a part of our way of life as humans, we use chemicals to power homes, kill pests, and clean. Although chemicals may have many benefits, there is one major downside to chemicals – side effects. A side effect scientists are most concerned with is cancer. When a chemical has the ability to give someone cancer, it is called a carcinogenic.

How cancer works – in a huge oversimplification (medical students please don’t kill me) – is that when cells in your body have their DNA altered, the cell can no longer activate its security measures (meaning it cannot terminate itself) and it starts to spread cancer to other cells around the body, creating a tumor. This tumor, with some communication with the body, can take blood (filled with lots of resources), and use it to spread more. Cancer is mostly caused by exposure to radiation or cancerous chemicals. More specifically, when chemicals enter the body, they’re absorbed into various tissues, and then into those tissue’s cells, and then from there, the cycle mentioned above begins. Cancer is not contagious and you cannot get it from other people infected with cancer, although it is not wise to be in close contact with someone who does have cancer, as cancer can hurt or damage the immune system’s responses to other contagious diseases.

The economic impacts chemical risks have on communities and businesses can be massive or nonexistent, depending on life choices. It can be horrible for pest control businesses that require the use of chemicals to run efficiently. It could be harmless to a desk worker, who will rarely come into contact with these herbicides. Recently a herbicide (more commonly known as “weed killers”), sometimes called roundup, has been reported to be cancerous and causing numerous people and plants damage. Roundup has a chemical, glyphosate that is not confirmed to be carcinogenic, but all roads of cancerious evidence lead to glyphosate.