Document Ny5L5okMKVNQ5BRGjaZ2nJxD

82 OCCUPATIONAL TUMORS AND ALLIED DISEASES Barkmeyer (1939), 4 cases. Miescher noted in 1934 the observation of 4 tar cancers. There is thus a total of 13 pitch and tar cancers found in Switzerland since 1930. Koelsch mentioned in 1924, that one case of pitch cancer had been observed in Holland in 1913. De Vries added in 1928 three pitch and two tar cancers which had been seen during the period from 1913 to 1927, and Kranenburg found one scrotal cancer and 136 cases with tar warts among 243 briquette plant workers, making a total of seven recorded cases for that country. While Ullmann had stated in 1922 that many cases of tar and pitch carci noma of the skin occurred among the workers of Belgian briquette plants, during the years 1917 to 1921, de Laet asserted in 1934, that there were no occupational tar cancers on record in highly industrialized Belgium. This rather amazing announcement was contradicted in 1940 by the investigations of Uytdenhoef as well as Firket and Malter. Uytdenhoef found, in 1934 to 1939> cases of skin cancer among 400 pitch and tar workers in Belgium in addition to 16 cases of "early cancers" and a considerable number of warts. Firket and Malter observed two fatal cases of tar cancer in workers with 20 to 26 years exposure to this substance in addition to 16 pitch workers with warts. From agricultural Hungary, Doleschall reported in 1928 the occurrence of one case of pitch cancer. Goyanes recorded from Spain one case of this industrial neoplasm in 1927, as did Ball from Ireland in 1885. The observa tion of a pitch cancer of the palm of the hand in a Russian glass-blower was noted by Epstein in 1930. The first case of tar cancer in Italy was described by Carelli in 1924, after Olivier had mentioned in 1902 the presence of scrotal carcinomas among Italian asphalt workers. This observation, however, was not confirmed by Carozzi who noted specially the absence of cancer among the asphalt workers in Sicily and the Abruzzi. In a survey made by Truffi, this investigator found a total of six tar cancers among "asphalt" workers which had occurred between 1910 and 1925. A seventh case of tar cancer was added by Picardi in 1926. This number was increased further by one case in 1928 (Lazzarini), and by four cases in 1931 (Calgaris, 1; Bettazzi, 3). Bettazzi discovered the three cases while making a thorough study of the industrial cancer situation by surveying the gas plants in Milan, Venice, Florence, Turin, Rome, Naples. There is thus since 1910 a total of 12 industrial pitch and tar cancers of the skin placed on record in Italy. The whole of continental Europe has reported not more than 130 cases of this industrial neoplasm since its first description in 1875. This relatively small number of industrial pitch and tar cancers of the skin reported from the countries of continental Europe is in stark contrast to the appalling incidence of these occupational neoplasms observed in England, Wales and Scotland, especially since the beginning of the present century. The