Document xYq6ZQ7reqO9Z3942dkEOk06
TUMORS OF THE SKIN
155
among no workers employed in a petroleum refinery in Moravia. Since only
a small percentage of these no men were actually engaged in the manufacture
of paraffin and had little appreciable contact with crude paraffin during the
20 years of operation of the plant, Ehrlich concluded that these neoplasms
appeared in 50 to 60 per cent of the exposed workers at approximately the
same time. Muller mentioned in his dissertation (1932) that Wilder had
seen, within 8 to 10 years, twelve cases of paraffin cancer in the Galician dis
trict. The most recent case was reported in 1925 by Eiselsberg. As it is likely
that the above-mentioned figures contain a certain amount of duplication, the
number of paraffin cancers recorded from the Austrian-Galician region may be
estimated to be about 25 cases. Oppenheim (1929) reported from Austria a
case of oil cancer which he observed in a metal grinder.
Regarding the occurrence of proliferative, cutaneous manifestations among
workers of the Rumanian and Russian oil industries, Ullmann had noted in
A 1912 that warty hyperkeratoses were frequently seen among Rumanian and
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Russian workers. Baader, on the other hand, emphasized the fact that not a
single case of oil or paraffin cancer had been observed in Rumania; and Koles-
nikow made a similar statement concerning the occurrence of malignant re
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actions in the employees of Russian plants near Grozny.
'4 Paraffin and oil cancers are unknown in the Netherlands (among 342 of 400
4 workers employed in cotton mills examined) and Belgium [among 2,020
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*1
workers employed in 8 cotton spinning factories (Carozzi)]. Bainbridge, as
serted, without giving any definite and detailed data concerning the source of
Ci his information, that many Belgians, who had been put to work as German
?, j. prisoners during the World War in German paraffin factories, had contracted there paraffin epithelioma of the hands. Considering that the time of exposure
to the carcinogenic agent for these cases would have been exceptionally short,
that the location of the resulting tumors would be unusual, and that the recent
statements of Belgian investigators, concerning the .occurrence and incidence of
occupational cancer in Belgian workers, make no mention of these cases, it ap
pears more than probable that Bainbridge's claim rests on misinformation,
particularly as similar observations have not been recorded concerning German
workers, who doubtlessly were employed at the same time in the same opera
tions. Buschke and Curth mentioned briefly that scrotal cancer caused by occu
pational contact with lubricating oils has not been seen among cotton spinners
in Italy and Spain.
The first cases of oil cancer in France were reported by Derville and Guer-
monprez in 1890. They found one case of cancer and three cases of multiple
papillomas among 300 to 400 workers employed in oil refineries located in the
region of Roubaix, Loos, and Douai. These investigators were told at that ^
time that similar manifestations were found among workers of the oil re
fineries of the Paris district. No further report has appeared concerning the