Pott, Percivall

In 1775 the British surgeon Sir Percivall Pott suggested that scrotal cancer in chim ney sweeps was caused by soot This was the first pro posal that cancer could be caused by chemicals present in the workplace... 

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. 

Percivall Pott made one of the first observations of a health risk related to occupational exposure. In 1775, he noted that chimney sweeps had a higher incidence of cancer of the scrotum. A century later, in 1895, it was observed that workers in the aniline dye industry were more likely to develop bladder cancer. 

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. 

In England in 1775, Dr. Percivall Pott wrote a paper on the high incidence of scrotal cancer in chimney sweeps who were typically boys small enough to fit inside chimneys and clean out the soot. Pott suggested that chimney soot contained carcinogens that could cause the growth of the warts seen in scrotal cancer. Over a 150 years later, chimney soot was found to contain hydrocarbons capable of mutating DNA. 

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). 

Alkylation of DNA, genetic material, can be at the origin of skin cancer. Examples are coal tar and the scrotal skin, first described in 1775 by Sir Percivall Pott as a professional disease. ... 

In 1775, an English medical doctor and surgeon, Dr. Percivall Pott, took a closer look at the adult men who had once been climbing boys. During their work, the sweat would run down their bodies,... 

Melicow, M. M. Percivall Pott (1712-1788) 200th Anniversary of First Report of Occupation-Induced Cancer of Scrotum in Chimney Sweepers (1775). Urology 6 97Sy. 745 9. 

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