60 YEARS OF CHEMICAL CARCINOGENS - SIR KENNAWAY,ERNEST IN RETIREMENT

1992 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the publication of the first pa per on the production of cancer by pure hydrocarbons, by the team at t he Chester Beatty Research Institute headed by Professor Kennaway. Stu dies on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and other chemical carcinogen s continued to thrive under his leadership in succeeding years at the Chester Beatty and beyond, into his 'retirement' in 1946. He played a key role in stimulating research on factors contributing to the epidem ic of lung cancer that became apparent by then, and with the support o f the Medical Research Council (MRC) and other organizations he direct ed a small team working on analytical and epidemiological studies in a makeshift laboratory at St Bartholomew's Hospital. Published work inc luded the identification and determination of benzo(a)pyrene in domest ic soot, urban air pollution, motor vehicle exhausts and cigarette smo ke, also arsenic in urban air and cigarette smoke, radon in indoor air and carbon deposits in human lungs. Such studies have been pursued in other laboratories around the world since then, and many of the lines of enquiry are traceable back to the pioneering work of the team at t he Chester Beatty 60 years ago.