Skin cancer in the engineering industry from the use of mineral oil. 1949.

Although the oetiological association between soot and cancer of the scrotum was recognized by Percival Pott as early as 1775, the role of mineral oils in the production of skin cancer was not recognized until considerably later. Joseph Bell of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary reported a case of carcinoma of the scrotum in a Scottish shale oil worker in 1876. Southam and Wilson (1922) pointed out the high incidence of scrotal cancer in Lancashire cotton mule spinners and, although various theories of causation were advanced, the production of tumours in mice by the cutaneous application of lubricating oil by Leitch (1924) indicated that some constituent of the spindle oil was the carcinogen. The carcinogenicity of a large number of petroleum oils was investigated by Twort and Twort (1931) who showed that many were carcinogenic. The high incidence of skin cancer. in Scottish shale oil workers was described by Scott (1922). Experimental tumours were produced in mice by applying shale oil to the skin (Leitch, 1922), and finally Berenblum and Schoental (1943), by using the chromatographic method of separation, isolated 3-4 benzpyrene from this oil and showed that there were other carcinogens present. The carcinogenic agents in petroleum oils, however, probably differ qualitatively and quantitatively from those in shale oils which are produced by destructive distillation. So far no pure carcinogens have been isolated from petroleum oils. In 1920, it was made obligatory to notify occupational skin cancer due to paraffin or mineral oil or any of their compounds, residues or products, contracted in a factory or workshop. These notifications have been invaluable for finding out the extent to which the disease occurs, and in conjunction with the examination of death certificates, have furnished the basis of the extensive researches