Vision for the Future Sets NIEHS Priorities

ALMOST EXACTLY six years ago, Sir Richard Doll celebrated the bicentenary of Percival Pott's publication of his account of the chimney sweep's cancer, in the seventh Walter Hubert Lecture entitled "Pott and the prospects for prevention" (Doll, 1975). Its essence was to emphasize the role which has been played by observant clinicians and pathologists in the discovery of carcinogenic agents active in man and to suggest ways in which a more systematic search might be made in future for undisclosed occupational carcinogens. In this lecture I take up a similar theme and try to deal with 4 questions: (1) Are there likely to be as yet undisclosed occupational carcinogens? (2) Are they worth looking for? (3) How should we look for them? And in hard times (4) How may we make old tools sharper and more serviceable?