Sassafras and cancer

Back when I was a Boy Scout, I learned about sassafras and sassafras tea. You know that flavor of "root beer?" Sassafras root.

I learned to recognize the plant, and would dig up the roots and make sassafras tea on camping trips.

Years later, I learned that sassafras is classified as a carcinogen. Am I worried? No. First of all, the dose makes the poison, and I might have had sassafras tea two or three times in my life. Secondly, relative to the carcinogenicity of X-rays (dental and others), cosmic ray exposure from dozens of airline flights, and UV-B from sunburns, the sassafras risk was trivial.

One of the things most people don't understand is risk. Every time you get in a car as a driver or passenger, you accept risk of injury or death. If you have a gun in the house, your statistical risk of premature death is higher than in households without firearms. If you are overweight or obese, your risk of cancer, heart disease and diabetes is higher than if you have a BMI of less than 25.

I could go on and on (honest, guv, I could), but I hope I've made my point. Everything we do carries risk, and as Keynes noted, in the long run, we're all dead. Try to enjoy the years you have left!