60 years of chemical carcinogens: Sir Ernest Kennaway in retirement.

1992 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the publication of the first paper on the production of cancer by pure hydrocarbons, by the team at the Chester Beatty Research Institute headed by Professor Kennaway. Studies on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and other chemical carcinogens continued to thrive under his leadership in succeeding years at the Chester Beatty and beyond, into his 'retirement' in 1946. He played a key role in stimulating research on factors contributing to the epidemic of lung cancer that became apparent by then, and with the support of the Medical Research Council (MRC) and other organizations he directed a small team working on analytical and epidemiological studies in a makeshift laboratory at St Bartholomew's Hospital. Published work included the identification and determination of benzo(a)pyrene in domestic soot, urban air pollution, motor vehicle exhausts and cigarette smoke, also arsenic in urban air and cigarette smoke, radon in indoor air and carbon deposits in human lungs. Such studies have been pursued in other laboratories around the world since then, and many of the lines of enquiry are traceable back to the pioneering work of the team at the Chester Beatty 60 years ago.

Air pollution in a city street. 1965.

Measurements of the concentrations of smoke, lead, and five polycyclic hydrocarbons in the air have been made in the City of London in the middle of a busy street and at two control sites. Samples were taken only throughout the daytime hours on weekdays to enable us to assess the maximum contribution made by traffic to the pollution in the street. The results showed that during these periods the air in the middle of the street contained three times as much smoke, four times as much lead, and 1.7 times as much 3:4-benzpyrene as were present in the general atmosphere as the City of London as estimated from samples taken at the control sites. One of these sites was chosen because it was only 150 feet away from the street; analyses yielded no evidence that the traffic contributed to the pollution sampled there. Sulphur dioxide concentrations were determined in the early part of the study and the results showed that traffic appeared to add little to the background level. The concentrations of lead found were below those held to be safe by many authorities. Carbon monoxide concentrations, reported in greater detail elsewhere, sometimes reached the accepted industrial maximum allowable concentration of 100 p.p.m.