Vinyl Chloride And Brain Cancer

This toxic chemical is a known human carcinogen causing liver cancer brain cancer and some cancers of the blood.

Vinyl chloride and brain cancer.

Vinyl chloride has also been associated with mammary breast cancer. Later in the 1960s workers exposed to vinyl chloride presented different types of cancer. One man from a plant in louisville kentucky developed angiosarcoma a rare cancer in his liver. It is believed that vinyl chloride found its way from the plant to the wells where the residents get their water.

Iarc monographs on the evaluation of carcinogenic risks to humans vol 97. Some glioblastoma multiforme patients develop the brain tumor after exposure to certain substances. How can exposures be reduced. Meta analysis of studies of occupational exposure to vinyl chloride in relation to cancer mortality.

Exposure to vinyl chloride may cause brain cancers hazard ous chemicals have worked their way into our daily lives most typically as cleaners and solvents kept around the home. 1 3 butadiene ethylene oxide and vinyl halides vinyl fluoride vinyl chloride and vinyl bromide. Manufacturers use vinyl chloride to produce polyvinyl chloride or pvc. Vinyl chloride exposure is associated with an increased risk of a rare form of liver cancer hepatic angiosarcoma as well as brain and lung cancers lymphoma and leukemia.

The issue is the strength of the association between vinyl chloride an ingredient in polyvinyl chloride pvc plastic and a byproduct of some chemical processes and brain cancer. Vinyl chloride is an organochloride with the formula h 2 c chcl that is also called vinyl chloride monomer vcm or chloroethene this colorless compound is an important industrial chemical chiefly used to produce the polymer polyvinyl chloride pvc. For example the children s hospital boston says that some patients develop the brain tumor after exposure to vinyl chloride. Vinyl chloride has been found in the air near vinyl chloride manufacturing and processing plants hazardous waste sites and landfills.

About 13 billion kilograms are produced annually. Others are used in manufacturing to make the things we use every day like certain plastics. This is the largest non occupational brain cancer cluster ever identified. Other cancers potentially associated with vinyl chloride exposure are nervous system cancers including brain cancer lymphoma leukemia and soft tissue cancers.

Because the community is isolated the common factor that seems to be causing the cancer is a vinyl food wrap factory near the town. Vinyl chloride also causes cancer in laboratory animals following lifetime inhalation or oral exposure predominately in the liver.