When headlines scream “WHO declares coffee a possible carcinogen” or “talc now labeled cancer-causing”, it’s easy to panic. But behind those bold statements lies a careful, science-driven process by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) - the world’s foremost authority on identifying what may cause cancer.

The IARC doesn’t measure how risky something is — it measures how strong the evidence is that it can cause cancer under certain conditions. 

Each classification reflects decades of research, laboratory studies, and human data.