Commentary: IARC Monographs Program and public health under siege by corporate interests.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) evaluates causes of cancer with help from independent international experts in an open and transparent manner. Countries, research and regulatory agencies, and other organizations adopt IARC evaluations for communication of human cancer hazards, and for strategies to prevent cancer. Scientists worldwide endorse IARC cancer evaluations and process. Those with economic interests, however, challenge IARC's cancer evaluations, most recently for glyphosate and red and processed meats, and are conducting a campaign including intervention from US Congressional Representatives to discredit IARC's review process and to undermine financial support-a campaign intimidating to IARC and Working Group members. Challenges to scientific interpretations serve to advance science and should be resolved by scientific experts who do not have conflicts of interest. Such interference does not bode well for the free flow of scientific information that informs and protects the public from risks of cancer.

Residential Proximity to Gasoline Stations and Risk of Childhood Leukemia.

Significant elevations in the risk of childhood leukemia have been associated with environmental exposure to gasoline; aromatic hydrocarbons from refinery pollution, petroleum waste sites, and mobile sources (automobile exhaust); paints, paint products, and thinners; and secondary cigarette smoke in the home. These higher risks have also been associated with parental exposure to benzene, gasoline, motor vehicle-related jobs, painting, and rubber solvents. These exposures and jobs have 1 common chemical exposure-benzene, a recognized cause of acute leukemia in adults-and raise the question of whether children represent a subpopulation in which a higher risk of leukemia is associated with very low level exposure to environmental benzene.

Benzene and leukemia, Pliofilm revisited: I. An historical review of the leukemia deaths among Akron Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company employees.

The cohort study of Pliofilm workers exposed to benzene has been used as a primary data source to estimate quantitative dose response for benzene-leukemia. Little attention has focused on the undercounting of leukemia deaths used in the analyses, nor on the behavior of the company toward the Pliofilm workers who contracted leukemia. An historical review of documents related to the Akron portion of the cohort indicates that between two and five workers diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) could be added to the cohort for alternate dose response analyses. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the company did not inform Pliofilm workers with AML that they had the disease, concealed from the workers, including those diagnosed with AML, and the treating hematologist that benzene was the solvent being used, and denied compensation for AML cases exposed to benzene until forced to do so by the State of Ohio in 1968.

Styrene exposure and risk of cancer.

Styrene is widely used in the manufacture of synthetic rubber, resins, polyesters and plastics. Styrene and the primary metabolite styrene-7,8-oxide are genotoxic and carcinogenic. Long-term chemical carcinogenesis bioassays showed that styrene caused lung cancers in several strains of mice and mammary cancers in rats and styrene-7,8-oxide caused tumours of the forestomach in rats and mice and of the liver in mice. Subsequent epidemiologic studies found styrene workers had increased mortality or incidences of lymphohematopoietic cancers (leukaemia or lymphoma or all), with suggestive evidence for pancreatic and esophageal tumours. No adequate human studies are available for styrene-7,8-oxide although this is the primary and active epoxide metabolite of styrene. Both are genotoxic and form DNA adducts in humans.

The IARC october 2009 evaluation of benzene carcinogenicity was incomplete and needs to be reconsidered.

I have been familiar with the toxicological and epidemiological literature on benzene since I was a member of the NIOSH Benzene Task Force in 1975. I also am familiar with the procedures of IARC Monographs meetings from past participation, and as observer I applied this experience to the Monograph 100 F review. In October of 2009, a Working Group (WG) of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) met in Lyon, France to evaluate the available evidence for site-specific cancer to humans for 33 chemical agents and related occupations previously categorized by IARC as human carcinogens. Generally, review and discussion of the epidemiological cancer literature related to benzene was limited due to the enormous amount of material needing to be covered since the last full monograph meeting on benzene in 1981, and because 32 other chemicals and occupations were also being evaluated. Moreover, among the 33 chemicals and occupations reviewed, there was some inconsistency in the use of studies for evaluating various cancers. In some situations, consideration could have been given to the inclusion of relevant unpublished, but readily available study results. Discussion and synthesis of the animal cancer studies and mechanistic data related to specific cancers also were limited. IARC's conclusion that there is sufficient evidence for benzene to cause acute non-lymphocytic leukemia only was based on an incomplete review. IARC should schedule another monographs meeting dedicated to a complete and full review and discussion of all potential cancers related to exposure to benzene and to benzene-containing mixtures.

Vinyl chloride propellant in hair spray and angiosarcoma of the liver among hairdressers and barbers: case reports.

Two cases of angiosarcoma of the liver (ASL) are, to the best of our knowledge, the first literature reports of such cases identified among hairdressers and barbers who used hair sprays containing vinyl chloride (VC) as a propellant. The cases were exposed to VC aerosols between 1966 and 1973, for 4-5 year periods. Modeling indicates estimated peak levels of VC exposure ranging from 129 ppm to 1234 ppm, and average exposure ranging from 70 ppm to 1037 ppm, based upon assumptions of use and number of air exchanges per hour. As ASL is a sentinel cancer for exposure to VC, identification of these cases raises concern about the contribution of VC to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a much more common type of liver cancer, as well as other VC-related cancers among hairdressers and barbers. Had manufacturers acted in a responsible manner, VC never would have been introduced as a propellant into consumer products such as hair sprays, pesticides, and paints.

Cadmium-induced cancers in animals and in humans.

Discovered in the early 1800s, the use of cadmium and various cadmium salts started to become industrially important near the close of the 19th century, rapidly thereafter began to flourish, yet has diminished more recently. Most cadmium used in the United States is a byproduct from the smelting of zinc, lead, or copper ores, and is used to manufacture batteries. Carcinogenic activity of cadmium was discovered first in animals and only subsequently in humans. Cadmium and cadmium compounds have been classified as known human carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the National Toxicology Program based on epidemiologic studies showing a causal association with lung cancer, and possibly prostate cancer, and studies in experimental animals, demonstrating that cadmium causes tumors at multiple tissue sites, by various routes of exposure, and in several species and strains. Epidemiologic studies published since these evaluations suggest that cadmium is also associated with cancers of the breast, kidney, pancreas, and urinary bladder. The basic metal cationic portion of cadmium is responsible for both toxic and carcinogenic activity, and the mechanism of carcinogenicity appears to be multifactorial. Available information about the carcinogenicity of cadmium and cadmium compounds is reviewed, evaluated, and discussed.

Benzene exposure and multiple myeloma: a detailed meta-analysis of benzene cohort studies.

Case reports and epidemiological studies of workers exposed to benzene have demonstrated associations with a number of lymphohematopoietic diseases, but the association with multiple myeloma (MM) has been less apparent. Data from all of the "benzene cohort studies" conducted to date have been selected and evaluated for inclusion in a meta-analysis. The analysis demonstrates a significant excess in the relative risk (RR) of MM in relation to benzene exposure. Pooling the data from seven cohort studies, a meta-analysis yields a statistically significant weighted RR estimate of 2.13 (95% CI = 1.31-3.46). In the analysis of cohort data, an understanding of the cohort follow-up period in relation to benzene exposure and RR of MM is important. Exposure-related RRs of disease decline after the median latency periods are exceeded, particularly when exposure has terminated decades earlier. The positive epidemiological evidence for benzene as a cause of MM is supported by biological plausibility for such an effect from benzene exposure. Studies of refinery workers are difficult to interpret in relation to benzene exposure and risk of MM, but are limited in the study design and analysis. Nonetheless, they provide some support for an association between refinery work and MM.

FIOH-sponsored newsletter misrepresents asbestos hazards in Zimbabwe.

The Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH) has received support from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labor Office (ILO) to publish the African Newsletter on Occupational Health and Safety. The African Newsletter on Occupational Health and Safety should not be a medium for industry propaganda, or the source of misinformation among the workers of Africa. Instead, FIOH should provide the same level of scientific information in Africa that it does in Finland and other developed countries.

The past suppression of industry knowledge of the toxicity of benzene to humans and potential bias in future benzene research.

Petrochemical industry representatives often withhold information and misinterpret positive evidence of toxicity of benzene, even from their own research, also discouraging or delaying disclosure of findings of adverse effects to the public. They now appear to be attempting to influence study results in industry's favor by offering predetermined conclusions about study results as part of an effort to draw financial support for the studies. The American Petroleum Institute is currently raising funds for benzene research being conducted in China for which it has already announced the intended conclusions.

Safeguarding scientific evaluations by governmental agencies: case study of OSHA and the 1,3-butadiene classification.

Using the example of the industry pressures on OSHA that preceded the Agency's downgrading the carcinogenic potential of butadiene from "human carcinogen" to "possibly carcinogenic to humans" in the face of scientific evidence, the author warns of the danger to public health of the infringement on governmental agencies' decision making by special-interest groups.