Risk Estimate Vanishes From Benzene Report

Abstract

A 1982 report on benzene published by the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) deleted a scientific advisory group's estimate of the risk of leukemia in workers exposed to small amounts of the chemical. Allegations are reported that the estimate, which would have had regulatory implications for U.S. industry, was omitted because the National Cancer Institute (NCI), responding to industry complaints about the data, cautioned the IARC director to refrain from quantitative risk assessment in its NCI-funded monographs. (KIE abstract)