Sisko Anttila • Paolo Boffetta
Editors

2014

Writing of the book on occupational cancer is motivated first of all by the fact that a great proportion of occupational cancers are not recognized even in post-industrial countries. In fact, only some rare tumor types with a very strong association with certain exogenous factors, such as pleural malignant mesothelioma with asbestos exposure, liver angiosarcoma with vinyl chloride exposure, and intestinal type sinonasal adenocarcinoma with hardwood exposure, are considered as occupational diseases on a regular basis. These tumors are accepted as workrelated because they rarely exist in the non-exposed, while occupational etiology of common cancers is more difficult to recognize. The best example is asbestos-related lung cancer: On the basis of epidemiology the numbers can be estimated, but much fewer cases than expected are identified and reported, although there are some differences between countries.