However, literally everything is linked to cancer these days. You can't go around punishing companies because their products have proposed but not proven links to cancer.

First, no, not "literally everything." Literally everything would mean that you, yourself, are a suspected carcinogen. I'm sure you'd argue you're a really nice guy, and not a carcinogen.

But second, yes, you can punish people. The Superfund Act, for example, signed in 1980 by Reagan, holds anyone who might have had a finger in the pot of a polluted area responsible for the cleanup. Why? Too many people pointing fingers, saying "he did it!" As a result, pretty much nothing got cleaned up, and normal people were stuck dealing with the aftermath.

Beyond that, things are getting linked to cancer in increasing amounts. Curiously, the amount known about things and how they act on the body is increasing daily. Why is it known that cigarettes are unquestionably bad for you? Maybe because scientists have spent the past 30 or so years studying it. Why is it known that wood dust is carcinogenic? Again, it might just have to do with reams of data, collected over years and years, that point to one inevitable conclusion.

Social Security kicks in at around 65 (plus or minus, depending on certain factors.) Why? Because average human life expectancy wasn't much longer than that. Usually, you died of heart disease or something. These days, people are living longer and healthier, and we're seeing things like cancers that never got a foothold 50 years ago because most people never lived long enough to see them.

Whine about people going nuts about cancer, but know that it's a thing, and it's a thing for very good reasons. If you've not experienced cancer first hand (in either yourself or a close blood relative) then just wait a few years. It's coming.