Cancer environmental

Effects of indoor air pollutants on humans are essentially the same as those described in Chapter 7. However, there can be some additional pollutant exposures in the indoor environment that are not common in the ambient setting. From the listing in Table 23-1, radon exposures indoors present a radiation hazard for the development of lung cancer. Environmental tobacco smoke has been found to cause lung cancer and other respiratory diseases. Biological agents such as molds and other toxins may be a more likely exposure hazard indoors than outside. 

It has been proposed that in as many as 70-80% of the cases of human cancer environmental chemicals are the causative factors (JL). There is no reason why similar estimates would not be valid for animals. It is noteworthy that the occurrence of chemical carcinogens is widespread in the aquatic environment. For example, of the PAH s, BP is found in the concentration of 50 to 100 yg/m3 in what is considered moderately polluted surface water in waste water as much as 100,000 yg/m3 has been measured (6l). Several... 

Leiss, J. K., and D. A. Savitz. (1995). Home pesticide use and childhood-cancer A case control study. American Journal of Public Health 85(2) 249-252. Zahm, Sheila H., and Mary H. Ward. (1998). Pesticides and childhood cancer. Environmental Health Perspectives 106(Suppl. 3) 893-908. 

Careful research has weakened assertions that environmental chemicals are endocrine disruptors and major causes of cancer. Environmental organizations still tout the risks to raise the public s awareness—they say—and to solicit contributions. Government officials, in charge of programs to investigate the risks, continue to provide funds to scientists who look for evidence to support the assertions and to programs that test chemicals for effects that have little, at best, and more likely, no, relationship to human health. Environmental organizations publicity and gov-... 

Daniels, J.L., Olshan, A.F. and Savitz, D.A. (1997) Pestiddes and childhood cancers. Environmental Health Perspectives, 105, 1068-77. 

Zahm, S. H., and Ward, M. H. 1998. Pesticides and childhood cancer. Environmental Health Perspectives 106 (Supp.3) 893-908. 

Davis D, et al. (1993) Medical hypothesis xenoestrogens as preventable causes of breast cancer. Environmental Health Perspectives 101 372-377. 

Unger, M., and J. Olsen. 1980. Organochlorine compounds in the adipose tissue of deceased people with and without cancer. Environmental Research 23 257-263. 

Jacobson-Kram, D. Albertini, R.J. Branda, R.F. Falta, M.T. Lype, R.T. Kolodner, K. Liou, S.-H. McDiarmid, M.A. Morris, M. Nicklas, J.A. ONeill, J.P. Poirier, M.C. Putman, D. Strickland, P.T. Williams, J.R. Xiao, S. 1993. Measurement of Chromosomal Aberrations, Sister Chromatid Exchange, hprt Mutations, and DNA Adducts in Peripheral Lymphocytes of Human Populations at Increased Risk for Cancer. Environmental Health Perspectives Supplements, v.lOl, p.121-125. 

Possible negative environmental effects of fertilizer use are the subject of iatensive evaluation and much discussion. The foUowiag negative effects of fertilizer usage have been variously suggested (113) a deterioration of food quaUty the destmction of natural soil fertility the promotion of gastroiatestiaal cancer the pollution of ground and surface water and contributions toward the destmction of the ozone layer ia the stratosphere. 

Chemiluminescence has been studied extensively (2) for several reasons (/) chemiexcitation relates to fundamental molecular interactions and transformations and its study provides access to basic elements of reaction mechanisms and molecular properties (2) efficient chemiluminescence can provide an emergency or portable light source (J) chemiluminescence provides means to detect and measure trace elements and pollutants for environmental control, or clinically important substances (eg, metaboHtes, specific proteins, cancer markers, hormones, DNA) and (4) classification of the hioluminescent relationship between different organisms defines their biological relationship and pattern of evolution. 

The accident at the Three Mile Island (TMI) plant in Pennsylvania in 1979 led to many safety and environmental improvements (4—6). No harm from radiation resulted to TMI workers, to the pubHc, or to the environment (7,8), although the accident caused the loss of a 2 x 10 investment. The accident at the Chernobyl plant in the Ukraine in 1986, on the other hand, caused the deaths of 31 workers from high doses of radiation, increased the chance of cancer later in life for thousands of people, and led to radioactive contamination of large areas. This latter accident was unique to Soviet-sponsored nuclear power. The Soviet-designed Chemobyl-type reactors did not have the intrinsic protection against a mnaway power excursion that is requited in the test of the world, not was there a containment building (9—11). 

L. Fishbeia and 1. K. O Neill, eds.. Environmental Carcinogens Methods of Analysis and Exposure Measurement, Vol. 10, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France, 1988, Chapts. 7—12. 

W. C. Hueper, Occupational and Environmental Cancers of the Urinary System, Yale University Press, New Haven, Coim., 1969, p. 216. 

The other global environmental problem, stratospheric ozone depletion, was less controversial and more imminent. The U.S. Senate Committee Report supporting the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 states, Destruction of the ozone layer is caused primarily by the release into the atmosphere of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and similar manufactured substances—persistent chemicals that rise into the stratosphere where they catalyze the destruction of stratospheric ozone. A decrease in stratospheric ozone will allow more ultraviolet (UV) radiation to reach Earth, resulting in increased rates of disease in humans, including increased incidence of skin cancer, cataracts, and, potentially, suppression of the immune system. Increased UV radiation has also been shown to damage crops and marine resources."... 

Environmentally induced cancers, for example, commonly involve latency periods of 15 to 30 years or more. 

International Society for Environmental Toxicology and Cancer (ISETC)... 

TABLE 13.7.1 Consensus Ranking of Environmental Problem Areas on the Basis of Population Cancer Risk... 

Environmental tobacco smoke mid gasoline vapors both contain mixtures of trace luiiounts of many of the individual compounds regulated as Air Toxics under Title 111, section 112 of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendnmts. Much of the general public is more likely to be exposed to these mixtures during the course of their lives tlian to specific compounds on the air toxics list. Hence, estimation of the cancer risk resulting from exposure to these mixtures is a useful and relevant exercise. 

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