Prevention of occupational cancer hazards

Our plain-English summary of Prevention of occupational cancer hazards, by W.C. Hueper (CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, 1959).

The study

• Author: W.C. Hueper
• Journal: CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians
• Published: 1959;9(3):88-97
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This 1959 article was a commentary that reported no new data. It set out measures the author recommended against occupational cancer hazards: engineering, industrial hygiene, medical and public health. The author noted that no country yet had a comprehensive preventive cancer control program. On asbestos, the author stated that wetting to suppress asbestos dust reduced exposure. According to the author, this lowered the liability to asbestosis and to lung cancer, which the author said depends on the prior and continuing presence of asbestosis. The author cautioned that wetting agents should not themselves be carcinogenic. The author wrote that exposure to asbestos or aromatic amines as short as six months could still lead to cancer in some people after a lag sometimes exceeding decades. The author recommended medical follow-up for 20 to 30 years after exposure ends and keeping contaminated work clothes out of the home; periodic examinations may include, where indicated, lung x-rays and tests for asbestos bodies in sputum and lung tissue. The author concluded that applying these measures would likely bring appreciable control of numerous occupational cancer hazards.

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: Commentary setting out recommended preventive measures (technologic engineering, sanitary industrial hygienic, medical and public health measures) against occupational cancer hazards; no original data
• Who was studied: No study population; the article addresses workers in industrial operations involving carcinogenic agents, and by extension their families and the general population
• Exposure: Occupational carcinogens in general, including asbestos dust (no fiber type specified), aromatic amines such as beta-naphthylamine and benzidine, petroleum products, coal tar, arsenic, chromium, nickel, beryllium, radioactive materials and ionizing radiation
• Main results:
  • The author stated that wetting to suppress asbestos dust decreases the liability to asbestosis of the lung and to lung cancer, which the author described as depending on the preexistence and coexistence of asbestosis
  • The author cautioned that the agents used for wetting should not themselves be carcinogenic, for example carcinogenic constituents of petroleum derivatives
  • The author stated that exposure as short as six months to aromatic amines or asbestos may still result in cancer in some exposed persons after a lag period sometimes exceeding one or several decades
  • The author recommended continuing medical supervision of exposed individuals for 20 to 30 years after exposure stops
  • The author wrote that periodic examinations may include, where indicated, x-rays of the lungs (asbestos is among the agents listed for lung x-rays)
  • Among the tests that such examinations may include where indicated, the author listed tests for asbestos bodies in sputum and lung tissue
  • The author recommended that detailed medical records on all exposed persons be kept for at least five decades
  • The author recommended that contaminated work clothes not be taken home for laundering, because this might spread the cancer hazard to workers' families
  • The author noted that no country or subdivision of a country had yet developed a comprehensive program of cancer control by preventive measures
  • The author recommended that cancers among workers in carcinogenic operations be made notifiable to public health agencies
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that if the outlined measures were effectively applied, an appreciable degree of preventive control of numerous occupational cancer hazards would likely be obtained without serious disruption of industry
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The author noted that knowledge of environmental carcinogenesis still had large gaps and that most available information was relatively new

Related studies

• Silicosis and asbestosis: diagnosis, prevention and treatment — O.A. Sander (1955)
• Programmed health surveillance and detection of emerging diseases in occupational health: contribution of the French national occupational disease surveillance and prevention network (RNV3P) — V. Bonneterre, L. Faisandier, et al. (2010)
• Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH): prevention and detection of asbestos-related diseases, 1987-2005 — M.S. Huuskonen, J. Rantanen (2006)
• Low Wages as Occupational Health Hazards — J.P. Leigh, R. De Vogli (2016)
• IARC in the dock over ties with asbestos industry — D. Holmes (2013)
• Cancer in asbestos-exposed occupational cohorts: a meta-analysis — M. Goodman, R.W. Morgan, et al. (1999)

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