"The adverse health effects of mycotoxins range from acute poisoning to long-term effects such as immune deficiency and cancer."
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mycotoxins
"Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by microfungi that are capable of causing disease and death in humans and other animals. Because of their pharmacological activity, some mycotoxins or mycotoxin derivatives have found use as antibiotics, growth promotants, and other kinds of drugs; still others have been implicated as chemical warfare agents."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC164220/
"Mycotoxin contamination is a global phenomenon and causes a wide array of negative effects and other complications."
"Exposure to mycotoxins, which occurs mostly by ingestion, leads to various diseases, such as mycotoxicoses and mycoses that may eventually result in death."
"Over the years, mycotoxin contamination of food, feed, and agricultural products has emerged as an issue of serious concern, as these toxic substances in (1) may cause different types of poisoning and, consequently, diverse health problems (from acute to chronic problems) in both animals and humans (1). Mycotoxins are natural contaminants of food and agricultural products all over the world"
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6354945/
"Mycotoxins are well established toxic metabolic entities produced when fungi invade agricultural/farm produce, and this happens especially when the conditions are favourable. Exposure to mycotoxins can directly take place via the consumption of infected foods and feeds; humans can also be indirectly exposed from consuming animals fed with infected feeds. Among the hundreds of mycotoxins known to humans, around a handful have drawn the most concern because of their occurrence in food and severe effects on human health."
"Along with the significance of mycotoxin toxicities and their toxicological mechanisms, there are associated health concerns arising from exposures to these toxins, including DNA damage, kidney damage, DNA/RNA mutations, growth impairment in children, gene modifications, and immune impairment"
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8949390/
"The chemical nature of most of the mycotoxins makes them highly liposoluble compounds that can be absorbed from the site of exposure such as from the gastrointestinal and respiratory tract to the blood stream where it can be dissimilated throughout the body and reach different organs such as the liver and kidneys. Mycotoxins have a strong tendency and ability to penetrate the human and animal cells and reach the cellular genome where it causes a major mutagenic change in the nucleotide sequence which leads to strong and permanent defects in the genome. This defect will eventually be transcribed, translated and lead to the development of cancer."
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28184933/
"Mycotoxins are toxic fungal metabolites which are structurally diverse and cause adverse human and animal health issues, mainly by oral exposure. They are the common contaminants of agricultural food/feed products, such as maize, wheat, nuts, and other foods derived from them. To date, mycotoxins with carcinogenic potency as reported in the literature include aflatoxins, ochratoxin, fumonisins, zearalenone, and some Penicillium toxins. Most of these carcinogenic mycotoxins are genotoxic and mutagenic agents in many model systems and produce chromosomal aberrations."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9266006/
"Mainly, the experimental studies have shown associations between mycotoxin-linked mutations and cancer risk, and there is a need for researchers to confirm these links in epidemiological studies in order to guide public health policies and interventions."
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35805411/
Mycotoxin exposure is associated with increased risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in Huaian area, China
https://bmccancer.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12885-019-6439-x
Mycotoxin exposure and human cancer risk: a systematic review of epidemiological studies
https://www.iarc.who.int/news-events/mycotoxin-exposure-and-human-cancer-risk-a-systematic-review-of-epidemiological-studies/