RESUMEN
This paper examines changes in mortality from urinary bladder cancer in Italy during the years 1950-81 in relation to changes in smoking habits and in coffee, cocoa and tea consumption. The authors found that, in both sexes and for all ages, mortality has been increasing throughout this period, although the rates and relative increase have consistently been much lower and more gradual for women than for men. From the analysis of age-cohort-period variation it seems that bladder cancer mortality can also be influenced by changes in smoking habit patterns and by variation in the quality of diagnoses. The increase in death risk for both sexes in Italy up to cohorts born around 1905-10 can be related to occupational exposures and to high-tar-content tobacco smoking, whereas the tendency for mortality rates to stabilize and decline in cohorts born after 1910 were influenced by changes from high-tar-content and no-filter cigarettes to low-tar-content and filter cigarettes and by prevention measures taken in at-risk working environments. The consumption of coffee, cocoa and tea does not seem to be related to the increase in bladder cancer risk in Italy.