[Etiological aspects of occupational cancer in printing industry]

Research of oncology lethality from workplace exposures is one of the most effective approaches to studying the etiology of malignant neoplasms. However, certain problems of methodology compromise the informative value of such research whose purpose is to identify the carcinogens. Addition of data on morbidity and lethality in heterogeneous industrial categories, whose typical feature are inhomogeneous exposures, is a major methodological problem. The fact that the studied occupational populations are limited to male subjects is another important problem. The most adequate epidemiological study projects were analyzed and compared with the results of our own case study, which dealt, for the first time in the history of our country, with investigating the lethality causes of 1552 males and 3473 females occupied as compositors, printers and bookbinders at two major printing enterprises in the city of Moscow. According to the authors, an exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, e.g. benzopirin, could be a reliably higher risk of mortality of melanoma and of ovarian cancer among female press operators. With regard for experimental and epidemiological research, the authors believe it appropriate to put forward the below hypothesis: a many-year exposure to minimal quantities of asbestos contained in the paper dust was the key trigger inducing the malignant mesothelioma and ovarian cancer in bookbinders and printers.