| Sawmill Chemicals and Carcinogenesis James Huff National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA Abstract
Workers in wood industries are exposed to variable medleys of chemicals, both natural and synthetic. Additional exposures include fungi, bacteria, bark and wood dusts, solvents, paints, and various other wood coatings. These individual and conglomerate exposures have been associated with diverse occupational illnesses and hazards, including cancers. In this commentary, I summarize both experimental and epidemiologic carcinogenesis results for several chemicals used in the wood industry, as well as for wood dust. Working in the wood industries entails excess risks of cancers, among other diseases and workplace injuries. A key to preventing occupationally and environmentally associated cancers, as in the wood industries, is avoiding exposures to chemicals and wood dusts and, in particular, chemicals known to cause cancer in animals or/and humans. Key words: arsenic, carcinogenesis bioassays, CCA, creosotes, dioxins, formaldehyde, pentachlorophenol, phenol, polychlorophenols, sawmill chemicals, TCDD, wood dust. Environ Health Perspect 109:209-212 (2001) . [Online 14 February 2001] http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2001/109p209-212huff/ abstract.html Address correspondence to J. Huff, NIEHS, PO Box 12233, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 USA. Telephone: (919) 541-3780. Fax: (919) 541-5002. E-mail: huff1@niehs.nih.gov I thank J. Bucher and S. Masten for reading and reviewing this paper and for their valuable comments. Received 5 September 2000 ; accepted 13 October 2000.
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