Carcinogenic hazards in natural and man-made environments

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Abstract
The complex interaction between environment and man is recognized but not always well understood; it can be of a damaging or beneficial kind, and this is particularly so if chemical substances or their mixtures, metabolites, pyrolytic or degradation products participate in this gain-loss relationship. Among them, those possessing cytotoxic properties, i.e. carcino- or muta- or terato-genic activities, represent inherent dangers for man and animals. These chemicals may originate in the environment itself; or may be substances from natural sources, but spread by man through his technology polluting air, water, soil and food; or may be solely man-made, introduced by him into the environment, frequently expected to have useful effects but sometimes found to have noxious ones. Whatever their source, they consist of organic as well as inorganic materials and have a variety of chemical structures (in the widest sense). As carcino-, muta-, and terato-genicity may be functionally connected with molecular and/or electronic structural features of chemicals (and of their targets, cellular constituents), attempts will be described to examine such links, because their recognition might be helpful in predicting undesirable properties. It will be indicated that, as in the field of therapeutic drugs, no general rules are likely to exist, except inside groups or families of substances. This means that vigilance in the form of screening tests, if possible improved and simplified, will have to be carried out again and again, yet without panic and suspicion that in everything there are lurking doomsday materials.

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