If touching quarters or copper does cause testicular cancer, what do we do about it?

True, testicular cancer deaths are few and far between (I once read that even Stage IV has a 5-Year survival rate of over 60%), but the cost of curing the disease and the mental (let alone physical) trauma the patient goes through to cure it can be pretty damn harsh. If it did turn out that copper was somehow responsible for a moderate or severe increase in testicular cancer risk, then we should do everything in our power to switch to a different currency medium.

I feel the same is true for ovarian cancer, except that ovarian cancer is far more deadly than testicular, so our measures to counteract that should be more extreme.

Either way, is there any scientific evidence that Cu is somehow linked to cancer? I've never even heard of this before. Cu is a transition metal, low on the periodic table, not heavy, and it's usually not terribly reactive (then again, benzene is hardly reactive and look how carcinogenic that is). There need to be extensive studies on something like this.

If you folks don't want you quarters anymore just send them to me. How many got testicular cancer last year? 8,000? More than two million got skin cancer. That means you are 250 times more likely to get skin cancer from working out in the sun too long. And what do you know, decaffeinated coffee can cause cancer according to studies. Do you know how they check to see if something will cause cancer? They take the item and place it under the skin of some mice. If cancer forms in enough mice then that item is determined to cause cancer. You can stick a rock under your skin and it could cause cancer. What about studies before 1982? Pennies were still 95% copper back then. Much more so than the average quarter is.

While cancer in some instances is successfully treatable, I do not think that testicular or ovarian cancer is precisely caused by copper.

Copper has been in use for eons. Not just through coins, but with Cooking Utensils! If copper was going to be or is a problem to people who are more likely to develop cancer there would be a lot more of a problem with the introduction of copper to their system just by cooking.

Over exposure to anything can be risky. That's a proven fact. But exposure has to be extreme, not as you theorize, imho.

I am in India and I remember an ad long ago (perhaps more than 25 years), for a multivitamin tablet (not capsule) with minerals....saying "I take Copper for breakfast" and a man briskly walking (or crossing a street). Ironic isn't it? But Copper is one of the essential trace elements needed for our metabolism (or that is what we were taught in High School). But we, in India did use a number of copper utensils for cooking and all that, in by gone years, of course coating the inside with an alloy (of Zinc, I think). I do not know whether there has been any correlation studies done between testicular cancer and copper usage.

You are a "scientist". Where is any evidence of coins/copper causing cancer?

Sitting down for long hours at work everyday wearing tight pants may have some influence in testicular cancer.

Testing: perhaps they could get mice living in cages with copper sheet flooring and see if any develop disease.

I have heard about this theory before, a few years back, but haven't much since.

It would certainly make sense though that this would resurface when the government is considering ending paper dollar bills and switching to dollar coins.

I think that if we see a spike in the cancer rate if that goes through we'll know who the culprit is.

This is a subject for which I have little background and something which I haven’t thought about before. Even so, just a little reading demonstrates that this is not a simple subject and apparently there are competing opinions. Following are sites which appear to be more than simple opinion and they seem to be credible:

The first one offers differing causes:

http://www.acor.org/tcrc/causes.html

This second site is one of treatment.

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/treatment/t...

For those of you that aren't aware, this is true.

My brother used to handle a lot of copper, he died of testicular cancer in 2002.

A friend of mine was involved in the study at London University. Here is an excerpt from the lab's journal.

"Excerpt from PRJ. Page 13; Paragraph 4 & 5

Studies as early as November 3rd of 2010 have suggested that the Cupric Oxide that forms on the surface of copper coins over time could be a leading cause of testicular cancer in men. Using mouse and rabbit models, scientists were able to demonstrate that almost one quarter (23.5%) of the test animals developed this form of cancer with 4 months exposure to low amounts of cupric oxide. A team of Biochemists and Cell Biologists working in partnership with CRUK also observed that the constant friction between a human’s leg and old coins such as the US quarter in a pocket of leg-wear was enough to dislodge amounts of Cupric Oxide capable of posing a serious risk over time - the powdery substance can then rub into the skin of the thigh, where it is absorbed into the bloodstream. Unbound copper at incorrect oxidation state in the bloodstream poses many significant threats to human health, and has been shown to accumulate in the testicles.

The studies show imbalances of copper, particularly Cu3+ from cupric acid, causes disruption in the electron transport chain in the cells of the tissues where they accumulate. By interfering with oxidation and reduction reactions between various cytochrome proteins in the membrane of the mitocondrion, oxygen is not properly reduced, producing dangerous free radicals such as superoxide and hydroxide ions. These free radicals, or reactive oxygen species are highly reactive and penetrative, causing chain reactions in the cell which if not stopped by anti-oxidant proteins (vitamin C, E) often cause damage to the DNA of the cell. Persistent damage to the DNA of a cell can cause mutations, leading to cell death or mutagenesis leading to tumor formation"

Well, I guess we could do like other countries Spree, and do away with coins. They could always sue the company that makes the coins and get awarded huge sums of money, paid out in coins.. Suing the tobacco companies basically amounted in warning placed on packs. So they could print the warning on all the coins instead of of "in God we trust."

The best bet for now would be to keep your quarters in a change purse(women) or just throw it in a section of your wallet. While pocket lining is thin, a thick layer of fabric should protect you.