Identifying differences in U.S. exposure to ubiquitous carcinogens

Cancer is a leading cause of death in the United States, and substantial race-, ethnicity-, sex-, and income-based differences in cancer incidence and mortality persist despite declining overall trends. Underlying differences in exposure to carcinogenic chemicals are often cited as a contributing factor to persistent differences in the incidence of certain cancer types. In this exploratory analysis, we construct a novel database of actual or potential exposure to ubiquitous carcinogenic chemicals based on nationally-representative biomonitoring and environmental data to produce demographically-differentiated exposure statistics, where possible. Despite major data gaps - one or more measures of direct or indirect exposure were available for only 37% of these 622 carcinogens - our results show evidence of notable differences in exposure for at least 28 carcinogens. We also review readily-available information on associated exposure pathways and cancer types for carcinogens with differences in exposure to identify common pathways through which households may be exposed, and explore correlations between relative exposure levels and cancer incidence rates. We end the paper with a discussion of key data gaps and limitations that future data gathering and research could address.