Occupational and environmental lung disease: cancer

Bronchial cancer ('lung' cancer)

The single most important known environmental respiratory carcinogen by far in man is tobacco smoke. However lung cancer may also be caused by other agents, e.g. asbestos, certain compounds of nickel, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), e.g. benzpyrene, arsenic trioxide and chromates.

Mesothelioma

Exposure to asbestos dusts probably of all kinds but especially of blue asbestos (crocidolite) causes mesothelioma which is a cancer of the pleural lining of the lung (besides an increased risk of lung cancer in the bronchus as with smokers). Hundreds of ex-workers still die of these diseases in the UK every year.

Cancer of the nose or nasal sinuses might be caused by certain dusts from hard woods, leather processes and nickel refining.