Cancer

No. We can’t tell if living here caused someone’s cancer. Exposure to a chemical that may cause cancer does not mean that someone will get cancer. However, exposure to the chemical will increase the chance of getting cancer. The risk goes up with how much, how often, and how long the exposures have been going on. Cancer takes many years to develop before it’s diagnosed, so 10 or 20 years or more may go by from the time the cancer started growing to when it’s diagnosed.

Page last reviewed: December 29, 2015