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Occupational cancer prevention

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Summary

Studies of occupational cancer are particularly significant for primary prevention of cancer. Firstly, most cancers, once identified, can be prevented by reasonably simple means, without impinging on personal freedom. Secondly, the prevention of occupational cancers represents a saving of lives and the elimination of illness during the most active period of the lifespan. A third reason for investigating occupational cancers is that, in some cases, workers represent a particularly heavily exposed subgroup, and the occupational setting thus serves as a laboratory for the general environment. The protection of human health in the workplace should not depend solely on the epidemiological demonstration of existing risks; it is essential that results of predictive toxicology from long-and short-term laboratory studies also be used in the identification of possible carcinogenic risk factors.

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  1. Harri Vainio

    Present address: Institute of Occupational Health, Topeliuksenkatu 41 aA, SF-00250, Heisinki, Finland

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  1. Division of Environmental Carcinogenesis, International Agency for Research on Cancer, 150 cours Albert Thomas, F-69372, Lyon Cedex 08, France

    Harri Vainio

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The “Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology” publishes in loose succession “Editorials” and “Guest editorials” on current and/or controversial problems in experimental and clinical oncology. These contributions represent exclusively the personal opinion of the author

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Vainio, H. Occupational cancer prevention. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 113, 403–412 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00390033

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