Ok, not a particulalry upbeat thread but i am thinking about ditching my profession as a mechanic for something possibly less risky.

am i worrying about nothing or is the carcinogenic chemicals in everyday workshop meterials that may cause trouble in later life? i know about benzene but what else? i've been looking at Wurth safety data sheets and most where it says carcinogenicity: not available at this time. which makes me wonder if there is a connection but not enough to confirm it? Stuff like RTV Silicon, exhaust paste etc.

is it a case of it only effects you if you were to eat alot of it or could it be simply passing usage as and when?

again with benzene, who do the tuners/mechanics on here rate the risks? i've been reading up about it on the internet and it seems anything from just five years contact can be enough to cause cancer.

i don't want to go into details but a very close family member has passed away recently and there is a question mark over the situation possibly linked to being in close proximity to benzene, hence my thinking about it.

 

coulda sworn ive seen benezene in some drinks.??!

but tbh james I seriously wouldn't worry about that. There is more than enough cancer causing substances in the world and environment that you can wrap yourself up in cotton wool all your life and at the end of it... you'll wonder if it was wearing the cotton wool that killed you.

aspartame - read up on that in diet pops, read up about sugar, you can keep reading lots of theories of how bad things are and lots that dismiss them.

i'd be more worried about dropping a gear box on my head or something althought that probably doesn't settle your anxiety!

what other professions would you think about and i'll try and put you off.

 

Seriously, I think just about everything is linked to cancer in some way these days mate.

As for Aspartame, when it's heated up it turns into formaldehyde, which is used for embalming dead bodies

Nice to know, eh?

 

I wouldn't get too paranoid about it, whatever job you do there will be health risks, both known and unknown
They keep changing their minds on what foods are good or bad for you.
Millions of people smoke and that's guaranteed to kill you.

Everday exposure to exhaust fumes from vehicles is probably more likely to kill you, than anything else.
You can't escape health risks.
The same exposure to chemicals could eventually kill one person but not another and there seems no way to predict it.

I worked in a building being sprayed with blue asbestos nearly 40 years ago when I first started work, my foreman died 15 years later, I'm still here, Lifes a lottery.

Some of the people on here with 10's of thousands of posts will probably suffer Repetetive strain injuries later in life.

.

.

 

Agree with the above,theres a link with cancer causing material to anything you touch these days
You shouldn't really worry too much,i'm sure plenty of mechanics on here will reassure you. Ive only been a mechanic for 9 year so can't really say much about the later in life effects

Rob

 

You have to remember it's not just what you come into contact with but whether you have a genetic pre-disposition to get cancer. This is why if you have a family with a history of cancer you're more likely to get it, as you will share a certain amount of genes with your family, not certain that you're going to get it, just a higher probability. This is why some people can smoke 100 ciggys a day and never get lung cancer in their life, why? Life's a lottery, be lucky!

Basically as long as you take precautions like wearing latex gloves when handling oily/greasy/anti-freeze type stuff you should be ok.

Like has been said above though, alot of things we eat and drink now have been said to contain carcinogenic products, but it's always hard to prove due to the genetic pre-disposition within ourselves and the fact that when you get older the cell replicating parts of your body sometimes just fuck up causing cancer cells to be created!

There's a big history of cancer in my family, so I try to be careful what I eat and drink (in terms of if it's carcinogenic) and it was one of the reasons why I stopped drinking so many fizzy drinks! I went from Coke to Diet Coke, then found out that the aspartame sweetener is a possible carcinogen so decided to just drink squash instead!

The good things to eat are anything containing phenols and polyphenols, coffee and tea contain these, but the government don't tell you about it as the caffeine has a bad effect on your body (not carcinogenic though - other reasons).

Can you tell my sister works as a research scientist for a major cancer charity?

Cheers,

Andy

 

ive just took on a job handling chemicals, i was mopping up a little spillage today with some paper towel, turn round to do something and heard this sizzling, looked round and the paper towel is smoking away bloke was telling me his brother tried to clean his trainers with this stuff and they caught fire !

scary shit, if you dont see a post from me for 6 months, ive probably
had an accident.

minute they mention Oleum, im off down the job centre

 

Very interesting, thanks for the replys lads!