Bewertung epidemiologischer Untersuchungen ueber Dieselmotorabgas und Lungen- und Blasenkrebs Kritische Uebersicht

Abstract

Cigarette smoking is the most important cause of lung and bladder cancer. A number of occupational carcinogens are also well known. The question whether general air pollution and specifically diesel exhaust emissions increase the risk of these two types of cancer is less certain. Diesel exhaust emissions have produced cancers experimentally in animals when administered in very high dosages, but the relevance of such experiments to man, exposed even under the worst conditions to very much lower dosages, is uncertain. The problems with regard to diesel exposures in man are first that we do not have any very good objective measurements of diesel exposures; second, that it is very difficult to allow adequately for the major risk factor of these two cancers, namely, cigarette smoking; and third, that there are powerful inducements towards biased ascertainment. Evidence is presented that smoking characteristics vary greatly in different occupations. Many studies of diesel (or suspected diesel) exposure in relation to lung and bladder cancer have not considered smoking at all. Those that have, have often considered only major differences in habits and ignored many other aspects of smoking, which may considerably increase carcinogenic risk. The main epidemiological studies considering diesel exhaust emissions in relation to lung and bladder cancer are critically reviewed. Our conclusion is that any increase in the risk of lung or bladder cancer from current exposures to diesel exhaust emissions cannot be large and may indeed not exist. Adequate allowance for other confounding factors has not yet been achieved. (orig.)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: RN 4481(112) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman