Every day, people may touch thousands of chemicals(化学药品).These chemicals are said to be harmless to human health. In fact, the chemicals are considered so safe that we may wash with them. We put them on our bodies and even our faces. Other chemical products are used around our homes. Each chemical seems harmless on its own. But when connected with other chemicals, they may become deadly. That is the finding of a two-year study by a high-profile (高调的) task force of scientists. The task force was told to find the cancer-causing(致癌)possibility of chemical mixtures.
Linda Gulliver was one of the 174 scientists on the task force. Their job was to study the cancer-causing possibility of 85 chemicals. All 85 are said to be common in the environment.
Ms. Gulliver explains that chemicals have the possibility or ability to form dangerous mixtures. Even simple minerals(矿物) can become dangerous when mixed with chemicals found in plastics or beauty products.
She says the latest way to find whether(是否) chemicals cause cancer is to test them one at a time. This method leads to a long list of "safe" chemicals. She also says, "We need some researches to find out what mixtures of chemicals would be more harmful than others; what groups of chemicals, when together, would produce more harmful effects(影响). But at the moment, that is not known."
