REVIEW OF OCCUPATIONAL LUNG CARCINOGENS

Lung cancer is the most common malignancy in the United States and is ranked second only to bladder cancer in the proportion of cases though t to be due to occupational exposures. We review the epidemiology of o ccupational lung cancer, focusing on agents identified as pulmonary ca rcinogens by the international Agency for Research on Cancer. We deriv e estimates of overall relative risks from the major studies of these Lung carcinogens, and we also provide estimates of the number of expos ed workers. Using our data as well as estimates from other authors, we estimate that approximately 9,000-10,000 men and 900-1,900 women deve lop lung cancer annually in the United States due to past exposure to occupational carcinogens. More than half of these lung cancers are due to asbestos. This estimate is likely conservative, in that we have re stricted our analysis to confirmed lung carcinogens and have ignored o ccupations with documented excess risk but for which the specific agen ts are unknown. Also, our estimate of the proportion of workers expose d in the past is probably too low. Our estimate should be viewed only as a broad approximation. Nevertheless, it is in line with other estim ates by authors using different methods. The current number of cases e stimated to be due to occupational exposures reflects past high exposu res and is likely to drop in the future, unless other occupational lun g carcinogens are confirmed or new carcinogens are introduced into the workplace. (C) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.