Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons carcinogenic identification

Man has served as the unintentional guinea pig for the identification of some major classes of carcinogens. These include the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), or polyarenes, which have been identified as the active components of soot, which was recognized by the London surgeon Percivall Pott two centuries ago as responsible for cancer of the scrotum in chimney sweeps. Subsequently, polycyclic hydrocarbons have been implicated as agents responsible for skin cancer in other occupations such as shale oil distillation and mule spinning in the cotton industry. 

Various compounds have been analyzed by site-selection spectroscopy. An interesting application is the identification of loci of damage in DNA resulting from reactions with carcinogens such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. 

Grimmer, G., and J. Misfeld, Environmental Carcinogens A Risk for Man Concept and Strategy of the Identification of Carcinogens in the Environment, in Environmental Carcinogens Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (G. Grimmer, Ed.), pp. 1-26, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 1983. 

Kennaway, E. (1955). Identification of carcinogenic compound in coal tar. Br Med J 2, 749—752. Kohan, M. J., Sangaiah, R., Ball, L. M., and Gold, A. (1985). Bacterial mutagenicity of aceanthrylene a novel cyclopenta-fused polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon of low molecular weight. Mutat Res 155, 95-98. 

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