For example, Cancer Research UK disregards research funded by the tobacco industry. It’s also important to know who funded the study, as this can affect the findings. This means that other experts have checked the results. It’s important to see if a study is published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Where is the study published and who funded it?.For example, if a study is looking at air pollution and lung cancer, it should also look at whether participants smoked. Studies should take known risk factors into account. There are lots of factors that can affect someone’s risk of cancer. Did the study account for other factors that could affect someone’s cancer risk?.So we mainly look at studies that follow thousands of people over many years. And studies that only follow people for a short amount of time can miss long-term effects. Studies on small numbers of people aren’t as reliable, because results are more likely to happen by chance. How big is the study and how long did it go on for?.Studies in animals and cells can help scientists understand how cancer works, but they can’t always tell us how it’s relevant to humans. Did the study look at cells, animals or people?.These are some of the things we consider:
Some studies are better than others at telling us about how different factors affect cancer risk. So, although new research comes out all the time, it is unlikely that one new study would change our position on a topic. We develop our information by looking at lots of research carried out over many years. We regularly review new research on the causes of cancer to make sure our information is up to date and based on the best quality evidence. However, there are proven causes of cancer, and things you can do to reduce your risk. There are many cancer myths that haven’t been proven to cause cancer. You can find out more about the Food Standards Agency here.Ĭutting down on plastics won’t affect your cancer risk but it can have environmental benefits. In the UK, the Food Standard Agency makes sure plastics and other materials that are used for food and drink are safe. For example, studies often put lots of a chemical directly on to one type of cell, which doesn’t happen in the human body. So, they don’t give good evidence on cancer risk in humans. But these experiments are very different from how people actually come into contact with plastics in their everyday life. Other studies on human cells or in animals have suggested some chemicals that can be found in plastics have cancer-causing effects. This is even in experiments when plastics are heated for hours at a time. Even though some studies have found certain chemicals in plastics can end up in things we may eat and drink, the levels are low, and within a range considered safe to humans. Some people think that chemicals that can be found in plastics, like bisphenol A (BPA) can get into our food or drink and then cause cancer.
So, doing things like drinking from plastic bottles or using plastic containers and food bags won’t increase your risk of cancer. There is no good evidence that people can get cancer from using plastics.