The future challenge for anatomic pathology

Review of the recent literature indicated, that the general interest in anatomic pathology is declining and the value of "routine" autopsies is debated, since they disclose merely different degrees of degenerative changes, without any explanation as to their possible causes. Today it is an accepted fact, that rapid changes in man's environment represents a serious health hazard. The acute cases of fulminating poisoning by different pollutants are well established, but the effects of insidiously deposited environmental agents in the body in microgram doses need to be investigated. The systematic study of the relationship between the deposited environmental materials during life and the tissue alterations would be a challenging role for anatomic pathology. To achieve this task, it will be necessary to re-tool the 19th century autopsy room where microbiological agents were recognized as the primary health hazard, to a 20th century laboratory with instruments capable of exact quantitation, which recognizes the microchemical agents as a danger to health. The concept of Environmental Research Pathology is proposed in a programmatic outline form.