Chromate lung cancer with special reference to its cell type and relation to the manufacturing process

The manufacturing process of the chromate industry can be classified into five steps. The main hazardous pollutants of the first step are trivalent chromate compounds, and those of the second and third steps are hexavalent chromate compounds. Analysis of the detailed working history of chromate workers with bronchogenic carcinoma, yielded the following results: the work history of chromatic lung cancer patients in the first step, which produced mainly trivalent chromate dust, was rather short. Patients with small cell carcinoma were engaged mainly in the second step (98.1% of the total working months), where they were heavily exposed to hexavalent chromate dusts. Patients with squamous cell carcinoma were engaged rather evenly in the second and fourth steps, and somewhat longer in the third step. Comparisons of the exposure periods revealed that the working history of small cell carcinoma patients was significantly shorter than that of squamous cell carcinoma patients. There were many more heavy smokers among the squamous cell carcinoma group as compared to the small cell carcinoma patients. Based on these results, it is concluded that the cell type of occupational lung cancer was mainly small cell carcinoma when the exposure to carcinogenic agents was heavy, and that the carcinogenicity of chromate was derived mainly from hexavalent chromate rather than trivalent compounds.