[Assessment of carcinogenic activity of industrial toxicants in occupational epidemiological surveys].

Evaluation of cancer morbidity and mortality from workplace exposure to industrial toxicants is a main avenue of research aimed to identify causes of human cancer. Many chemicals classified as carcinogens by International Agency for Cancer Research were first identified at workplaces. However, the value of these findings for the study of carcinogens in the occupational environment was compromised for a variety of reasons. A major methodological problem is to elucidate the cause-and effect relationship between inhomogeneous exposure to industrial pollution and cancer morbidity/mortality rates in different categories of workers. Another important problem in occupational epidemiology is the deficiency of data on the exposure level in women because reproductive organs are specific targets of certain chemicals and their carcinogenic effects are especially well apparent as gynecological diseases. Moreover gender-specific differences account for different risks and outcomes of apparently similar environmental exposure.

[Evaluation of potential carcinogenic hazards of lead and lead compounds].

A considerable percentage of Russian population, as well as in other countries, are at risk of exposure to lead as an industrial highly toxic hazard. It is notorious for polytropic influence, high stability both in human body and environment; it has a cumulative effect and a possible distant after-effect. An IARC working group carried out an evaluation of the data on lead carcinogenicity in industrial cohorts and found no suspicious risks. Inorganic lead compounds were classified as "probably carcinogenic to humans" (group 2B). Later on, the IARC Working Group (2004) referred those substances to group 2A (carcinogenic to humans).

[Etiological aspects of occupational cancer in printing industry]. / Etiologicheskie aspekty professional'nogo raka v poligraficheskoi promyshlennosti.

Research of oncology lethality from workplace exposures is one of the most effective approaches to studying the etiology of malignant neoplasms. However, certain problems of methodology compromise the informative value of such research whose purpose is to identify the carcinogens. Addition of data on morbidity and lethality in heterogeneous industrial categories, whose typical feature are inhomogeneous exposures, is a major methodological problem. The fact that the studied occupational populations are limited to male subjects is another important problem. The most adequate epidemiological study projects were analyzed and compared with the results of our own case study, which dealt, for the first time in the history of our country, with investigating the lethality causes of 1552 males and 3473 females occupied as compositors, printers and bookbinders at two major printing enterprises in the city of Moscow. According to the authors, an exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, e.g. benzopirin, could be a reliably higher risk of mortality of melanoma and of ovarian cancer among female press operators. With regard for experimental and epidemiological research, the authors believe it appropriate to put forward the below hypothesis: a many-year exposure to minimal quantities of asbestos contained in the paper dust was the key trigger inducing the malignant mesothelioma and ovarian cancer in bookbinders and printers.

[Assessing lead cancerogenic effects affecting printing house workers]. / Otsenka kantserogennosti svintsa u rabotnikov tipografii.

The aim of this study was to determine the level of risk of occupational cancer among compositors exposed to inorganic lead. A total of 216 men and 423 women were included in the cohort and followed up from 1 January 1979 to 31 December 1993. There were 2759 person-years among males and 6050 person-years among females. Among men, employed as compositors, there was a significantly elevated mortality from pancreas cancer. We have found two deaths from kidney cancer occurred exclusively among women-compositors with exposure 20 years or more yielding significantly increased SMR of 10.0.

[Epidemiology of occupational neoplasms in the printing industry]. / Epidemiologiia professional'nogo raka v poligraficheskoi promyshlennosti.

The paper presents the findings of the first Russian study of possible cancer risks in printing workers. For the first time, the historical cohort study included women. The cohort comprised 1,553 males and 3,473 females who were followed up for 15 years (01/01/79-12/31/93). A significant increase in the rates of death from pancreatic cancer was registered among males employed as compositors exposed to inorganic lead dust and vapors. Raised mortality from malignancies of the stomach urinary bladder, skin melanoma and mesothelioma was identified in females exposed to a PAU-containing oil paint aerosol and paper dust. Significant death risks from esophageal and ovarian malignancies due to exposure to glue vapors and paper dust were observed in bookbinders.