Leaded gasoline — A cause of cancer

https://doi.org/10.1016/0160-4120(80)90154-3Get rights and content

Abstract

In the course of earlier tests the authors had found that the cancer mortality among 231 adult persons living adjacent to an automobile road was much higher than among persons living in a traffic-free section of the same town. Fifty-nine of the above individuals residing adjacent to the automobile road had been treated with calcium EDTA to eliminate lead. Only one of these later died of cancer. Of the persons who were not treated with calcium EDTA, on the other hand, 30 died of cancer, or ten times more percentage-wise.

The existence of small lead deposits as well as the health-impairing effect of lead were demonstrated by measurements of lead and delta-aminolaevulinic acid in urine. After treatment with calcium EDTA, the lead content, as well as the amount of delta-aminolaevulinic acid, became normal. The concentrations of lead were found to be greater in suspended dust particles and in sediment dust along the automobile artery than elsewhere in the town.

These findings, together with many other reports in the medical literature lead to the suspicion that lead in automobile gasoline, combined with other carcinogenic substances in automotive exhaust gases, increases the incidence of cancer.

References (68)

  • O. David et al.

    Lead and hyperactivity

    Lancet

    (1972)
  • C.A. Apffel et al.

    Tumor rejection in experimental animals treated with radioprotective thiols

    Cancer Res.

    (1975)
  • S. Araki

    On the behaviour of active deposit of lead in the Japanese free from occupational exposure to lead

    Ind. Health

    (1973)
  • G. Balmus et al.

    L'action d'un produit chélateur. Le calcitétracémate disodique sur l'évolution du carcinome T8 Guérin chez le rat

    Rev. Path. gén.

    (1961)
  • R.W. Baloh

    Laboratory diagnosis of increased lead absorption

    Archs. envir. Hlth.

    (1974)
  • E. Batschelet et al.

    On the kinetics of lead in the human body

    J. Math. Biol.

    (1979)
  • E. Bingham et al.

    Alveolar Macrophages: reduced number in rats after prolonged inhalation of lead sesquioxide

    Science

    (1968)
  • W. Blumer

    Bleidepots bei Anwohnern einer Autostrasse

    Med. Neuheiten

    (1969)
  • W. Blumer

    Nervöse Störungen durch Autoabgase

    Praxis

    (1970)
  • W. Blumer et al.

    Motorisierung — wichtigste Ursache für Krebsentstehung?

    Praxis

    (1972)
  • W. Blumer et al.

    Gesundheitsschädigung durch Bleibenzin

    Praxis

    (1975)
  • W. Blumer et al.

    Bleibenzin und Krebsmortalität

    Schweiz. med. Wschr.

    (1976)
  • M. Blumer et al.

    Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in soils of a mountain valley: correlation with highway traffic and cancer incidence

    Envir. Sci. Technol.

    (1977)
  • E. Boyland et al.

    The induction of renal tumors by feeding lead acetate to rats

    Br. J. Cancer

    (1962)
  • D.D. Choie et al.

    Cell proliferation in rat kidneys after prolonged treatment with lead

    Am. J. Path.

    (1972)
  • P. Coogan et al.

    Parenteral lead subacetate induced sarcomas in rats

  • W. Dehnen et al.

    Beeinflussung des Abbaus von Benz(a)pyren in der Lunge durch Schwermetalle

  • I. Dingwall-Fordyce et al.

    A follow-up study of lead workers

    Br. J. ind. Med.

    (1963)
  • M. Doss et al.

    Quantitative Bestimmung von 5-Aminolävulinsäure und Porphobilinogen im Urin mit Ionenaustauschchromatographie-Fertigsäulen

    Z. klin. Chem. klin. Biochem.

    (1971)
  • H. Druckrey

    Chemische Noxen als Krebsursachen

    Bull. Schweiz. Krebsliga

    (1968)
  • S.S. Epstein

    Carcinogenity of tetraethyl lead

    Experientia

    (1968)
  • A. Furst

    Chelation and cancer — a speculative review

  • E. Grandjean et al.

    Umwelthygiene in der Raumplanung

    (1973)
  • R.M. Hagstrom et al.

    The Nashville air pollution study — VII. Mortality from cancer in relation to air pollution

    Archs. envir. Hlth.

    (1967)
  • K. Haustein et al.

    Blei-Vorsogeuntersuchungen und daran anschliessende Entbleiungskuren bei Sicherheitsbeamten der Bundes-Polizeidirektion Wien

    Forum Umwelt-Hygiene

    (1976)
  • H.O. Hettche

    Luftverunreinigung und Lungenkrebs

    Naturwissenschaften

    (1971)
  • D. Högger

    Das Problem der Benzinverbleiung

    Bull. Eidg. Ges.-Amt. Beilage

    (1971)
  • W.C. Hueper

    Occupational and Environmental Cancers of the Urinary Systems

    (1969)
  • G. Kallistratos

    Verhinderung der 3,4-Benzopyren-Kanzerogenese durch natürliche und synthetische Verbindungen

    Münch. med. Wschr.

    (1975)
  • R.A. Kehoe

    Editorial comment (R.L. Zielhuis)

    Arch. Envir. Hlth.

    (1971)
  • R. Knutti et al.

    Motorisierung und Krebsgefährdung

    Schweiz. med. Wschr.

    (1977)
  • N. Kobayashi et al.

    Effects of lead oxide on the induction of lung tumors in Syrian hamsters

    J. Natn. Cancer Inst.

    (1974)
  • S.I. Kooperstein et al.

    Lung cancer and environment

    J. occup. Med.

    (1965)
  • G. Lehnert et al.

    Berufliche Bleibelastung durch Autoabgase in Grossstadtstrassen

    Dt. med. Wschr.

    (1970)
  • Cited by (4)

    • Cesium therapy in cancer patients

      1984, Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior
    • Nutrients and cancer: An introduction to cesium therapy

      1984, Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior
    • Transport Policy in the EEC

      2021, Transport Policy in the EEC
    View full text