Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology Essay

Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology - Essay Example As per the rating system based on animal and human data by The International Agency for Research on Cancer, where an agent, mixture, or exposure circumstance is assigned to one of five categories, Bis chloromethyl ether, Benzene and Styrene belong to group 1, which means that the agents are carcinogenic to humans (Gottschall et.al, 2002). Of the three, Benzene is the most potential carcinogen causing carcinoma of various internal organs and tissues. It is followed by Bis -chloromethyl ether in potency, which is a known carcinogen of the lungs and Styrene known for its mutagenic effects. The Bologna experiments at the Bentivoglio Experimental Unit of the Bologna Institute of Oncology proved for the first time that benzene is an experimental carcinogen. These experiments demonstrated that benzene was carcinogenic when administered by ingestion and by inhalation and could cause tumors in the various tested animal models. They also showed that benzene is a multipotential carcinogen, as it produces a variety of neoplasias in one or more of the tested animal models, including Zymbal gland carcinomas, carcinomas of the oral cavity, nasal cavities, skin, fore stomach, and mammary glands, as well as angiosarcomas of the liver, hemolymphoreticular neoplasias, tumors of the lung, and possibly hepatomas. The Bologna experiments have also provided a clear-cut dose-response relationship in benzene carcinogenesis (Maltoni et.al, 1989). Bis-Chloromethyl ether