see also:

• foods that may be toxic or bad for you
• air pollution and health risks

• long term accumulation of potentially biologically active substances in the body is an increasing concern and is becoming more recognized as a major health threat not only to humans, but also other animals

• micro-particles
• nano-particles
• organophosphate pesticides
• Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) including PFOA, PFOS, GenX, Teflon
• heavy metals
• radioactive substances
  • cesium-137 in the food chain - 80% of ingested amounts accumulate in muscle with a radio-active half-life of 30yrs
  • iodine-131 does not accumulate as it has a radio-active half life of only 8 days and is generally cleared from the body within 6 days, but it can cause issues with the thyroid in acute high doses and cause delayed onset thyroid cancers
• persistent pathogenic infections which remain potentially active in the body after they have been acquired with potential to cause harm or re-activate
  • many viruses
    • Herpes simplex virus (HSV) - recurrent herpes, encephalitis
    • varicella-zoster virus (chickenpox/shingles) - herpes zoster (shingles)
    • human papilloma virus (HPV) - many cancers
    • EBV / glandular fever / infectious mononucleosis - ?role in some cancers
    • cytomegalovirus (CMV)
    • hepatitis C virus - chronic hepatitis and possible hepatocellular cardinoma
    • etc
  • TB
  • fungi
  • parasites
    • eg. Strongyloides
  • microbiomal

• epigenetic modifications
• gene mutations
• pathologic diseases resulting in accumulations of particular substances:
  • haemochromatosis
  • Wilson's disease
  • amyloidosis
  • etc