Is Cancer Environmentally Caused?

Our plain-English summary of Is Cancer Environmentally Caused?, by S. Budiansky (1981).

The study

• Author: S. Budiansky
• Published: American Chemical Society 15(6):615 June (1981)
• Type of article: Journal article
• Our copy: from Johns-Manville's own medical library. The article is still under copyright, so we describe it here rather than post it.

In plain English

This was a short news article, not a research study, and it reported no new data. It described talks at a symposium held at an American Chemical Society meeting in Atlanta. The article reported the speakers' message that industrial chemicals at large in the environment account for only a few percent of all cancers. Asbestos was mentioned only once. Occupational exposure to asbestos was listed, with cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption and occupational exposure to vinyl chloride, among factors the article said have clearly been shown to cause cancer in humans by themselves. John Higginson, director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, cited his study of cancer statistics in southern Africa. That study suggested 70-80% of cancers can be attributed to environmental factors, with "environmental" defined to include diet and behavior, not only industrial chemicals. Richard Wilson, a Harvard risk assessor, estimated that less than 1% of cancers were due to general exposure to industrial chemicals and 3-5% were due to occupational exposures.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: News report of a scientific symposium (not an original study or a systematic review); it summarizes speakers' remarks
• Who was studied: No study population. The article reports remarks by symposium speakers, including John Higginson (International Agency for Research on Cancer), R. K. Boutwell (McArdle Laboratory, University of Wisconsin) and Richard Wilson (Harvard).
• Exposure: Environmental causes of cancer in general: industrial chemicals, occupational exposures, diet and life-style. Asbestos is named only once, as an occupational exposure among factors said to clearly cause cancer in humans. No fiber type is given.
• Main results:
  • The speakers' message was that industrial chemicals at large in the environment account for only a few percent of all cancers.
  • The article listed cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and occupational exposure to vinyl chloride and asbestos as factors clearly shown to cause cancer in humans by themselves.
  • Higginson's study of cancer statistics from communities in southern Africa suggested that 70-80% of cancers can be attributed to environmental factors, defined to include diet and behavior.
  • Wilson estimated that less than 1% of cancers are due to general exposure to industrial chemicals.
  • Wilson estimated that 3-5% of cancers are due to occupational exposures.
• The authors' conclusion: The article states no conclusion of its own. It reports the speakers' views that diet and life-style factors account for most environmentally attributed cancers, and that industrial chemicals account for a small share.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Occupational Exposure.

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