Documents Axelson, Olav 5 results

The results of a pilot study examining mortality patterns among 178 flower greenhouse owners between 1965 and 1993 in Santa Marinella in Italy were reported. The vital status of the greenhouse owners, their spouses, and adult sons and daughters was assessed and compared to mortality rates of the general population of the region. The greenhouse owners, their spouses, and their children contributed 3,762.8, 3,771.6, and 9,548.7 person years of observation, respectively. Both greenhouse owners and their spouses had lower than expected mortality from all causes and from all cancers. In contrast, mortality from all cancers was increased in the adult children of greenhouse owners. Specifically, mortality from ovarian cancer (due to 2 deaths) and from leukemia was increased in adult children of the greenhouse owners. Two cases of leukemia occurred among the greenhouse owners compared with 0.7 expected. The authors conclude that the identification of an increased risk of leukemia, even in this small cohort, is consistent with previous studies and deserves further attention.

"In 1977 several patients were seen with soft-tissue sarcomas and previous exposure to phenoxy acids. This clinical observation resulted in a cases-referent (case-control) study being undertaken which showed that exposure to phenoxy acids or chlorophenols, which are chemically related, gave a roughly six-fold increase in the risk for this type of tumour. A further case-referent study of soft-tissue sarcomas has now been performed to confirm these earlier findings and also to obtain further information on the effects of different phenoxy acids. This new investigation gave an increase of the same magnitude in the risk for soft-tissue sarcomas after exposure to phenoxy acids or chlorophenols, but this risk related also to exposure to phenoxy acids free from impurities, such as polychlorinated dibenzodioxins and dibenzofurans."

"Despite the considerable efforts and funds devoted to cancer research over several decades, cancer still remains a mainly lethal disease. Cancer incidence and mortality have not declined at the same rate as other major causes of death, indicating that primary prevention remains a most valuable approach to decrease mortality. There is general agreement that environmental exposures are variously involved in the causation of the majority of cancer cases and that at least half of all cancers could be avoided by applying existing etiologic knowledge. There is disagreement, however, regarding the proportion of cancer risks attributable to specific etiological factors, including diet, occupation and pollution. Estimates of attributable risks are largely based today on unverified assumptions and the calculation of attributable risks involves taking very unequal evidence of various types of factors and treating them equally. Effective primary prevention resulting in a reduction of cancer risk can be obtained by: (i) a reduction in the number of carcinogens to which humans are exposed; or (ii) a reduction of the exposure levels to carcinogens. Exposure levels that could be seen as sufficiently low when based on single agents, may actually not be safe in the context of the many other concomitant carcinogenic and mutagenic exposures. The list of human carcinogens and of their target organs might be quite different if: (i) epidemiological data were available for a larger proportion of human exposures for which there is experimental evidence of carcinogenicity; (ii) more attention was paid to epidemiological evidence that is suggestive of an exposure-cancer association, but is less than sufficient, particularly in identifying target organs; and (iii) experimental evidence of carcinogenicity, supported by mechanistic considerations, were more fully accepted as predictions of human risk."