Professional Cancer

Occupational cancer is defined as a blastomogenic reaction that occurs as a result of a person's professional activity with regular, usually prolonged, contact with some exogenous chemical and physical agents that operate quite intensively.

As defined by the WHO Expert Committee, a professional carcinogen is a carcinogen that causes malignant tumors in men and women as a result of their professional activities.

The establishment of a link between the appearance of occupational diseases and the carcinogenic factors that cause them is complicated by the latent period of tumors, sometimes very long. For example, professional cancer (angiosarcoma of the liver), caused by the action of vinyl chloride monomer, was detected more than 40 years after the commencement of the production of this substance. Therefore, in identifying professional oncological diseases, it is important to establish a professional route for the sick person and a retrospective analysis of the relationship between the disease and the profession.

The effect on the occurrence of malignant neoplasms in men is more pronounced than in women, apparently due to the fact that occupational exposures in men are more often combined with more severe working conditions and greater prevalence of harmful habits (smoking, alcohol abuse). The contribution of occupational exposures to mortality from different cancer locations varies from 25 (pleura, nasal sinuses and other respiratory organs, except the lungs) to 1% (prostate gland).

Effects that cause professional cancer, cover virtually all localizations of malignant neoplasms. The lungs, gastrointestinal tract organs, skin, bladder, hematopoietic and lymphatic tissues, the central nervous system are most often used as target organs of production carcinogenic effects.

Carcinogenic danger for people is represented by enterprises for the production and use of soot, coal tar and mineral oils; enterprises associated with the production and use of certain aromatic amine compounds; production and use of asbestos; enterprises for the production and purification of arsenic, chromium, nickel.

Studies in various countries have shown that the most stable dependence of morbidity and mortality on occupational hazards is observed in lung cancer. They are highest among truck drivers, tractor drivers, asbestos production workers and steelmakers, i.e. In people directly in contact with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and asbestos. When working in contact with arsenic compounds for 25 years, the risk of lung tumors increases in workers 8 times compared with the general population.

The increased oncological morbidity at industrial contact with isopropyl alcohol (a cancer of paranasal sinuses) and benzene (a leukemia) is proved. The professional cancer of the nasal cavity of workers in furniture and footwear factories causes wood and leather dust.

The occurrence of bladder cancer is associated with occupational hazards: exposure to aromatic amines in the production of dyes, rubber and textile industries. This includes professions associated with exposure to paints and solvents, leather dust, ink, some metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, combustion products of diesel fuel. Professional renal cancer does not exclude the role of asbestos and the impact of work in hot smelters.

Currently, there are two trends in the nature of occupational cancer.

1. The steady increase in the number of professions in which professional cancer is detected. This is due to the fact that the number of chemical compounds synthesized in laboratories and produced by industry is growing all over the world. According to reports, more than 5,000 new chemical compounds are being introduced annually.
2. An increase in the frequency of occurrence in workers of certain manufactures, not only of the main localized cancer, but also of tumors of other localizations that are not characteristic of this profession. For example, arsenic causes professional cancer not only of the lung, but also of the skin; asbestos affects, in addition to the lung, pleura and peritoneum, as well as the gastrointestinal tract.

Thus, the problem of such a disease as professional cancer has not lost its relevance at the present time. The number of new types of professional oncological diseases caused by previously unknown production carcinogenic factors is increasing. At the same time, their carcinogenic effect affects not only the workers, but also their offspring.

[1], [2], [3]