Occupational cancer, scrotal

Percival Pott describes scrotal cancer in chinmey sweeps, the first occupational cancer. 

Modem toxicology has its roots in the occupational environment. The earliest recorded observations relating exposure to chemical substances and toxic manifestations were made about workers. These include Agricola s identification of the diseases of miners and Pott s investigation of scrotal cancer incidence among chimney sweeps. Occupational toxicology, as its name implies, concerns itself with the toxicological implications of exposure to chemicals in the work environment. 

Cancer was first recognized as an occupational hazard in 1775 when the prevalence of scrotal cancer among London chimney sweeps was noticed. The chemical origin of this form of cancer was not universally accepted until 1922 when it was demonstrated that tumors could be induced on mouse skin using an etheral soot extract (60). Skin cancer was also noted to be an occupational hazard of workers exposed to pitch dust in the coal-briquetting industry (61) and to workers exposed to cmde tar (62). In 1915, tumors were produced in rabbits ears by prolonged application of cmde coal tar (63). Some 38 cases per year have been reported of cutaneous epithelioma in the tar distilling industry over a 25-year period up to 1945 (64). 

There were some important developments during the eighteenth century. Probably the best known is the publication of Ramazini s Diseases of Workers in 1700, which led to his recognition as the father of occupational medicine. The correlation between the occupation of chimney sweeps and scrotal cancer by Percival Pott in 1775 is almost as well known, although it was foreshadowed by Hill s correlation of nasal cancer and snuff use in 1761. 

Percivall Pott, 1775 born in 1714 and apprenticed to Edward Nourse, made some groundbreaking discoveries in the fields of cancer research and surgery techniques. He discovered the link between occupational carcinogens and scrotal cancer in chimney sweeps and wrote multiple scientific articles in his lifetime. 

The discovery that exposure to exogenous chemicals could lead to cancer in humans was first made in the late 18th century, when Percival Pott demonstrated the relationship between cancer of the scrotum and the occupation of chimney sweepers exposed to coal tar/soot. Other examples noted later were scrotal cancers in cotton spinners exposed to unrefined mineral oils, and cancers of the urinary bladder in men who worked in textile dye and rubber industries due to their exposure to certain aromatic amines used as antioxidants. Experimental induction of cancer by chemicals was first reported in detail by Yamagiwa and Ichikawa in 1918, when repeated application of coal tar to the ear of rabbits resulted in skin carcinomas. Over the next few years, Kennaway and Leitch confirmed this finding and demonstrated similar effects in mice and rabbits from the application of soot extracts, other types of tar (e.g., acetylene or isoprene), and some heated mineral oils. These researchers also observed skin irritation sometimes accompanied by ulcers at the site of application of the test material. Irritation was thought to be an important factor in skin tumor development. However, not all irritants (e.g., acridine) induced skin cancer in mice and conversely, some purified chemicals isolated from these crude materials... 

Creosote is carcinogenic to humans x-udd occupational studies that show an increased incidence in scrotal cancer in workers exposed to creosote from wood and coal burning Are places. 

Although occupational epidemiology officially goes back to 1775, when an English physician named Percival Pott observed an unusually large occurrence of scrotal cancer in chimney sweeps, most of the methods currently employed in occupational studies have been developed in the past twenty years. 

Percivall Pott in 1776 made the cormection between an occupational disease and its cause, linking scrotal cancer in chirtmey sweeps with soot, which we now know contains the cancer-causing compounds PAHs (polynuclear aromatic lydrocaibons). 

Chemical carcinogenesis is usually recognized when a sufficient cluster of cases of a particular kind of cancer is reported for a particular trade, pastime, or other occupation. The first such correlation concerned the chimney sweeps of London, whose scrotal cancer was attributed by Potts in 1775 to contact with tar and soot. However, it was not until the 1930s that the causative chemicals were isolated from coal tar, namely benzo[a]pyrene 12,41) and 1,2,5,8-dibenzanthracene (Cook, Hewett, and Hieger, 1932,... 

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