Cancers related to exposure to arsenic at a copper smelter.

Objective: This is an update of an earlier study on the relation between exposure to arsenic in air and deaths from respiratory cancer. The purpose was to verify earlier findings of a supralinear dose response relation and to examine relations with other cancers, particularly those reported in studies on drinking water.

Methods: An earlier study of 2802 men who worked at a copper smelter for a year or more during the period 1940-64 and who were followed up for deaths during the period 1941-76 was updated until 1986.

Review of new evidence regarding the relationship of gasoline exposure to kidney cancer and leukemia.

Four new or updated epidemiologic studies were presented at a meeting on the health effects of gasoline exposure held in Miami, Florida, November 5-8, 1991. A focus of these studies was whether there is a relationship between gasoline exposure and kidney cancer and leukemia. For gasoline distribution workers, who have a relatively high exposure, there was some evidence for a kidney cancer relationship in three studies but none in the fourth.

Weight of the evidence on the human carcinogenicity of 2,4-D.

The phenoxy herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) is widely used to control the growth of weeds and broadleaf plants. We convened a panel of 13 scientists to weigh the evidence on the human carcinogenicity of 2,4-D. The panel based its findings on a review of the toxicological and epidemiological literature on 2,4-D and related phenoxy herbicides.