Pindolol and pulmonary fibrosis.

Abstract

Numbers of patients with occupations indicating high degree of exposure to chemicals in 88 men with Hodgkin's disease (HD) and three control groups.(See text for description of controls) Patients Control groups with HD A B C (n= 88) (n = 100) (n= 100) (n = 32) Chemists . . 2 1 1 Painters and sprayers 5 1 1 Glass and pottery workers 5 Chemical processing workers 1 Rubber product workers 2 Plastics workers .. 1 1 Photographic laboratory workers 1 1occupations in the working male population in Sweden.The results therefore suggest that exposure to some chemical agents may be important for the development of HD.Interestingly, occupational exposure was unconmon in the patients with HD aged 20-30 years, whereas among the older patients 26-32%were occupationally handling chemicals.The incidence curve of HD is bimodal, with one peak between 20 and 30 years of age and a second increase beginning about the age of 35 years.This may be due to differences in aetiology between various age groups.3Our results indicate that occupational exposure to chemical oncogenic agents may be of some importance for the development of HD in men aged over 30, whereas other aetiological factors may be more important in the younger age groups.We emphasise that occupational titles obtained from case records will give only crude and insufficient information on occupational hazards.Despite this shortcoming, our finding of occupational ex- posure to chemicals in about 20% of adult men with HD means that efforts should be made to define environmental hazards that may be important in the development of HD.Such studies are in progress at our department.