Evaluation of the carcinogenicity of chemicals: a review of the Monograph Program of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (1971 to 1977).

In 1971 the International Agency for Research on Cancer initiated a program on the evaluation of the carcinogenic risk of chemicals to humans, which concentrated on the production of monographs on individual chemicals. A review of this ongoing program is presented here as a contribution to the discussion of primary prevention of cancer. A total of 368 chemicals were evaluated in the first 16 volumes of the International Agency for Research on Cancer monographs.

Asbestos and lung cancer: an analysis of the epidemiological evidence on the asbestos-smoking interaction.

Three simple models for the asbestos-smoking interaction on human lung cancer production are considered. In the first model the excess incidence of lung cancer independently due to asbestos and to smoking adds together when both agents are present (additive model). In the second the addition of each one of the two agents produces an effect (increase in lung cancer incidence) which is proportional to the effect of the other (multiplicative model).