Collection

Committee on Carcinogenicity: statements and guidance

Guidance and advice from the Committee on Carcinogenicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COC).

• From: UK Health Security Agency
• Published: 1 July 2012
• Last updated: 3 April 2024 — See all updates

The terms of reference for the Committee on Carcinogenicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COC) include generic advice to government departments and regulatory agencies on the risk assessment of carcinogens and associated topics. These documents set out their advice on risk assessment, and experimental methods and analysis.

Older publications are available on the UK Government Web Archive.

Watching briefs

• COC watching brief: the tumour microenvironment
  • 25 August 2022
  • Research and analysis

Guidance statements

The COT and COC Synthesis and Integration of Epidemiology and Toxicological Evidence (SETE) Subgroup Report sits alongside the guidance statement series and reviews the approaches to synthesising and integrating epidemiological and toxicological evidence that are used by COT and COC in chemical risk assessments and provides guidance and transparent reflection of how the COT and COC review data and apply expert judgement.

The Synthesising Epidemiology Evidence Subgroup (SEES) Report sits alongside the guidance statement series and provides guidance on how studies of health effects in human populations (human epidemiological studies) can be used to help assess the extent to which a chemical or substance causes cancer.

• A strategy for the risk assessment of chemical carcinogens
  • 16 December 2020
  • Guidance
• Hazard identification and characterisation: animal carcinogenicity studies
  • 15 June 2018
  • Guidance
• The use of biomarkers in carcinogenic risk assessment
  • 13 December 2018
  • Guidance
• Carcinogenic dose response: defining points of departure and potency estimates
  • 16 December 2020
  • Guidance
• Cancer risk characterisation methods
  • 25 August 2022
  • Guidance
• Alternatives to the 2-year bioassay
  • 23 May 2019
  • Guidance
• Risk assessment of mixtures of chemical carcinogens
  • 16 December 2020
  • Guidance
• Less than lifetime exposure: principles for consideration of risk
  • 12 March 2020
  • Guidance
• Joint statement on nanomaterial toxicology
  • 1 December 2005
  • Guidance

Statements

• Interim position on the safety of hydroxyanthracene derivatives for use in food
  • 3 April 2024
  • Guidance
• Epigenetics in chemical risk assessment: joint committee statement
  • 12 March 2020
  • Guidance
• Possible carcinogenic hazard from IGF-1 in the diet
  • 23 May 2019
  • Guidance
• Consumption of alcoholic beverages and risk of cancer
  • 8 January 2016
  • Guidance
• Vitamin E and the risk of prostate cancer
  • 10 July 2015
  • Guidance
• Relative vulnerability of children to asbestos compared to adults
  • 1 July 2013
  • Guidance

Annual reports

COC publishes a joint annual report with the Committee on Toxicity (COT) and the Committee on Mutagenicity (COM).

• Committees on Toxicity, Mutagenicity, Carcinogenicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment: joint annual report
  • 20 December 2023
  • Corporate report

Published 1 July 2012
Last updated 3 April 2024 + show all updates

1. 3 April 2024

   Added the 'Interim position on the safety of hydroxyanthracene derivatives for use in food' document to the guidance section.

2. 25 August 2022

   Added new group 'Watching briefs'.

3. 17 November 2021

   Added COT and COC Synthesis and Integration of Epidemiology and Toxicological Evidence (SETE) Subgroup Report.

4. 12 May 2020

   Added link to Synthesising Epidemiology Evidence Subgroup (SEES) Report.

5. 12 March 2020

   Added 'Epigenetics in chemical risk assessment: joint committee statement' and 'Less than lifetime exposure: principles for consideration of risk'.

6. 23 May 2019

   Added 'Possible carcinogenic hazard from IGF-1 in the diet'.

7. 2 February 2016

   Added statement on alternatives to the 2-year bioassay.

8. 6 January 2016

   Added statement on consumption of alcoholic beverages and risk of cancer.

9. 2 February 2015

   Added 'Hazard identification and characterisation: animal carcinogenicity studies' to the collection.

10. 29 September 2014

    Added guidance statement 05, 2014 to the collection.

11. 1 July 2012

    First published.