Cancer In Its Relation To Occupation And Environment

Our plain-English summary of Cancer In Its Relation To Occupation And Environment, by W.C. Hueper (1943).

The study

• Author: W.C. Hueper
• Published: Bulletin Of The American Society For The Control Of Cancer 25(6):63-69, June (1943)
• Type of article: Journal article
• Our copy: from Johns-Manville's own medical library, J-M no. 001958. The article is still under copyright, so we describe it here rather than post it.

In plain English

This 1943 article by W.C. Hueper was a general overview, not a study with its own new data. The author described cancers linked to work and to the wider environment and listed counts of cases that had been placed on record in various countries. Agents discussed included arsenic, chromates, nickel carbonyl, radioactive substances, x-rays, benzol, tar, oils, soot, dye chemicals, sunlight and asbestos. On asbestos, the author wrote that asbestosis cancer of the lung, first described in 1935, had 18 recorded cases among asbestos workers in England, Germany and the United States. Five of these came from the United States. The author said the disease had special significance there because the asbestos industry was most extensively developed in that country. Other figures included 34 nasal and 24 lung cancers recorded since 1924 among nickel refinery workers in South Wales. The author estimated approximately 8,000 to 9,000 recorded cases of occupational cancer overall, but warned that the figures rested on highly defective information. The author called occupational cancers preventable diseases.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Narrative review or overview of recorded cases of occupational, environmental and medicinal cancers; no original study
• Who was studied: Cases of occupational and environmental cancer placed on record in the published literature from many countries (including England, Germany, the United States and others), mostly over the preceding forty years
• Exposure: Many chemical and physical agents, including arsenic, chromates, nickel carbonyl, radium, mesothorium, asbestos, crude mineral oil, pitch, tar and soot, as well as benzol, aromatic amino compounds, x-rays, ultraviolet rays and parasitic worms
• Main results:
  • Asbestosis cancer of the lung, first described in 1935: 18 cases on record among asbestos workers in England, Germany and the United States, 5 of them from the United States
  • The author stated that asbestosis cancer of the lung had special hygienic and sociologic significance for the United States because the asbestos industry was most extensively developed there
  • Nickel carbonyl cancers among workers of two nickel refineries in South Wales: 34 cases of cancer of the nasal passages and 24 lung cancers on record since 1924
  • Approximately 8,000 to 9,000 cases of occupational cancer had been placed on record in total
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that occupational cancers, affecting the young and the old alike, are preventable diseases, and proposed control measures including detailed occupational histories by physicians, efforts by industry and notification
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The author stated that the statistical data presented were based on highly defective information and did not reflect actual incidence, partly because of incomplete reporting laws and industry reluctance to publicize cases

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Lung Cancer.

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