Are we surrounded by carcinogens that awaken sleeper cancer cells in our bodies?

Air pollution itself is an enormous carcinogenic burden.

The number of exposed people is so large that the stakes become

enormous. It's Monday, February 5th and right again, it's Science Friday.

I'm Sci-Fi producer D Peter Schmidt.

Cancer is the result of DNA mutations that cause cells to grow out of control and develop

tumors.

And over the years, scientists have identified certain chemicals

called carcinogens that are directly linked to those cancer-causing

mutations like those found in cigarettes. But the rates of some cancers are

rising dramatically in certain populations,

leaving scientists to wonder what carcinogens they might be missing

and how traditional models of detecting them are falling short.

Ira Fleto talks to a cancer researcher to understand how scientists are rethinking their approach

to identifying carcinogens, what role air pollution plays, and why he's hopeful for the future of cancer

research.

My next guest is Dr. Siddhartha Mukruji,

author of the Pulitzer Prize winning book,

The Emperor of All Maladies, the biography of cancer. he recently wrote an article in the New Yorker

entitled all the carcinogens we can't see we routinely test for chemicals that cause mutations

what about the dark matter of carcinogens?

Substances that don't create cancer cells, but rouse them from their slumber.

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