Solvents and cancer in the rubber industry

A study of cause of death among 6,678 rubber production workers whose exposure to 25 solvents could be traced confirmed a cancer association. Exposure to carbon tetrachloride, xylene, carbon disulphide, ethyl acetate, acetone and hexane was related to increases in leukaemia and lymphosarcoma. Workers exposed to carbon tetrachloride had a 15 times greater risk and those exposed to carbon disulphide had a nine times greater risk of dying of leukaemia. In an earlier study the same group of workers were found to have increased deaths from stomach and prostate cancer, but these were not found to be related to solvent exposure.

TC Wilcosky and others. Cancer mortality and solvent exposures in the rubber industry, American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal, volume 45, number 12, page 809, 1984.

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