What types of cancer can contaminated food cause?

Regular long-term consumption of unsafe food increases the risk of cancer.

Consuming contaminated food can cause stomach aches, vomiting, diarrhea, and other symptoms. In severe cases, food poisoning can even be fatal.

In addition, the regular consumption of unsafe food over a long period will increase the risk of intestinal cancers, while also triggering the risk of many other types of cancer. This not only directly impacts health but also leads to numerous consequences, such as high treatment costs, increased hospital fees, lost working time for patients and their families, and reduced work capacity.

Unsafe food can originate from diseased livestock and poultry or aquatic products living in polluted water environments. Vegetables and fruits may be treated with excessive chemical fertilizers, unauthorized pesticides, or incorrect dosages, without observing pre-harvest withdrawal intervals.

The uncontrolled use of growth stimulants and antibiotics is also a cause of food safety issues. Even using diseased, spoiled, or moldy food for meal preparation... leads to serious health consequences, including cancer.

1. Unsafe food caused by improper preparation

Slaughtering, livestock and poultry processing, and harvesting of food grains, vegetables, and fruits fail to comply with hygiene regulations.

Using food additives in violation of the Ministry of Health's regulations also poses health risks to consumers, such as:

  • Using the same knife and cutting board for both raw and cooked foods;
  • Using dirty towels to wipe eating utensils;
  • Contaminated food preparation surfaces, dining tables, and eating utensils;
  • Failing to wash hands before preparing food, especially when preparing food for young children.
  • Food handlers who are suffering from infectious diseases such as diarrhea, abdominal pain, vomiting, fever, coughing, or skin infections.
  • Food and eating utensils washed with contaminated water.
  • Undercooked food or food not reheated before eating.

2. Contaminated food due to improper preservation

Using ceramic, enameled iron, or recycled plastic containers contaminated with lead to store food.
Food left overnight or displayed for sale all day at room temperature without proper covering allows dust, insects, flies, and rodents to contaminate it.
Food not stored cold enough or hot enough allows bacteria to continue multiplying and growing.

3. Which cancers can contaminated food cause?

Long-term consumption of unsafe food increases the risk of developing gastrointestinal cancers and many other types of cancer, specifically:

Gastroesophageal cancer

Certain chemicals used for bleaching, food preservation, or residues from livestock production can damage the digestive tract and intestinal lining, leading to gastroenteritis, ulcers, and, more dangerously, stomach cancer. These substances can also damage capillaries, hindering the body's absorption and digestion of nutrients.

Colorectal cancer

Weight-gain agents and lean-meat agents in pork, growth stimulants, along with pesticide residues in vegetables and roots, are factors that increase cancer risks. In particular, fermented, salted, and processed foods such as cured meats, pickled mustard greens, pickled eggplants, salted fish, smoked meats, sausages, soy sauce, etc., contain many preservatives, increasing the incidence of colorectal cancer.

Liver cancer

Toxic chemicals, bacteria, viruses, and molds from contaminated food, upon entering the body, directly or indirectly attack the liver, overactivating Kupffer cells, causing inflammation and destroying liver cells, leading to many dangerous diseases, including liver cancer. This is one of the most dangerous cancers of the digestive system.

Bone marrow cancer

The long-term accumulation of chemicals and drug residues from contaminated food in the body can cause bone rot, bone marrow cancer, and reduced red blood cell counts, posing serious risks to health.

Nasopharyngeal cancer

In addition to lifestyle factors, consuming fermented foods, moldy foods, toxic chemical residues, and pesticides also increases the risk of nasopharyngeal cancer.

In addition to the aforementioned cancers, contaminated food also increases the risk of developing many other types of cancers and dangerous medical conditions.

In conclusion, food safety and hygiene play an exceptionally vital role in human health. Failure to ensure food safety leads to numerous severe consequences, ranging from acute and chronic illnesses to death. Individual losses include expenses for medical examination, treatment, and recovery, caregiving costs, and lost income due to absence from work.

Therefore, ensuring food safety and hygiene is a shared responsibility of the entire society. Safe, quality food plays a vital role in protecting and improving human health, preventing and controlling harmful risks, and curbing dangerous illnesses such as cancer, high blood pressure, and diabetes. This requires food producers, businesses, and processors to possess a clear conscience, a strong sense of responsibility, and proper awareness in creating and supplying clean, safe products to consumers, thereby contributing to building a safe society and safeguarding public health security.