[How to identify an occupational exposure to carcinogens and in which cases?]

Different tools may be used to evaluate previous occupational exposures, either in epidemiological studies or in clinical practice: occupational questionnaire followed by an expertise or the use of a job-exposure matrix; metrology; biometrology. In routine clinical practice, the main tool is an individual questionnaire to identify if a patient has worked in one of the main jobs or tasks known to be associated with an exposure to a definite carcinogen. As individual and collective consequences are important in case of recognition as an occupational disease, looking for the previous main occupational activities entailing exposure to carcinogens should be systematic in some sites of cancer: mesothelioma, lung, ethmoid, bladder and leukemia.