Keith, it's late at night here, and I probably in not in the best of mind-frame to address this, but I had to.  I agree with you...I don't use any "Bens", either, if I can help it!!!  I am also drinking chardonnary, so I AM hoping it will be decades for THAT factor to come to light, lol.  

Love,
Bren
 



I have always avoided products (soaps etc) that contain benzene
or benzene derivatives: any ingedient with "ben" in its name 
(like "benzoate", "paraben", "benzophenone", "benzyl" etc). I 
do this on palaeo grounds and also on my own understanding
of science. That is, that benzene products are strong solvents
which may act to dissolve the fatty membranes surrounding 
our cells.

Then I read recently about the rise in mouth cancers reported in 
the UK and the link from alcohol consumption. See this page,
especially the blogged reader experiences:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8193639.stm

Alcohol is another strong solvent and so I can see how drenching
our fatty cell membranes with a solvent could damage them,
and that chronic repeated damage could become cancerous.

From a palaeo perspective, I note that environmental cancers
take decades to develop, so alcohol consumption - even if
it had fatal consequences over the long term - may have only
negligible evolutionary consequences.

What are your thoughts on this?

Keith