Sawmill chemicals and carcinogenesis.

Workers in wood industries are exposed to variable medleys of chemicals, both natural and synthetic. Additional exposures include fungi, bacteria, bark and wood dusts, solvents, paints, and various other wood coatings. These individual and conglomerate exposures have been associated with diverse occupational illnesses and hazards, including cancers. In this commentary, I summarize both experimental and epidemiologic carcinogenesis results for several chemicals used in the wood industry, as well as for wood dust. Working in the wood industries entails excess risks of cancers, among other diseases and workplace injuries. A key to preventing occupationally and environmentally associated cancers, as in the wood industries, is avoiding exposures to chemicals and wood dusts and, in particular, chemicals known to cause cancer in animals or/and humans.