International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health. Supplement – serie

In 1980 the Directorate-General of Labor, Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, the Netherlands, requested the Coronel Laboratory for Occupational and Environmental Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Amsterdam, to carry out "a critical study of literature on health risks to women from industrial and occupational exposure to chemical agents which are different from risks to male workers, or which have only been observed in female workers. " The principal investigator was Mrs. A. Stijkel, medical biologist; a part of the study was carried out by R. L. Zielhuis, physician. M. M. Verberk, physician, and Mrs. M. v. d. Poel-Bot, librarian, provided continuous assistance. The final report (in Dutch) covering the literature up to and including 1981, was submitted to the government in October 1982. A somewhat abridged and modified English text, updated to include 1982, was prepared. The Editorial Board and the publisher of the International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health kindly made possible the publishing of this text in a special issue of the journal. The authors express their thanks to the Directorate-General of Labor, the Editorial Board and the publisher for making this publication possible. We sincerely hope that this report will be of assistance in making the industrial and occupational environment safer. Prof. Dr. R. L. Zie1huis Table of Contents Introduction 1 1 1. 1 Objective 1 Theoretical Possibilities for Extra Health Risks in Female 1. 2 Workers. 2 1. 2. 1 Differences Between Women and Men Apart from Reproduction .

Early in 1985, a meeting was held to discuss the organization of a work­ shop in honour of Professor Reinier L. Zielhuis on the occasion of his retirement on November 30,1986. Various themes for such a workshop were considered, but it was Zielhuis himself, who ultimately selected "Health surveillance of individual workers exposed to chemical agents" as the theme of the workshop. Although this topic is of the utmost im­ portance for occupational health practice, it is also a very difficult one, given our currently limited knowledge on the subject. The choice of this topic is characteristic of Reinier Zielhuis, a scientist and scholar who throughout his career has been deeply concerned with the health and health risks of workers. Because he regards occupational and environmental exposure - including life style - as two aspects of the total exposure to chemical and physical factors, he emphasizes the need to assess the impact of this total exposure on workers' health. The impact of total exposure probably detennines to a large extent the in­ dividual variability in response. This was the main reason why he selected the above-mentioned topic for the workshop.

How accurate are statements about smoking habits? This book presents the results of a comprehensive review in which the literature on the subject is newly interpreted. It is shown that smokers are misclassified as non-smokers in epidemiological studies often enough to explain the increased lung cancer risk seen in self-reported non-smokers in relation to their spouse's smoking habits. This study overturns the commonly held view that increased risk is a consequence of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and highlights the difficulty of making valid inferences from epidemiological data. No-one should draw conclusions about passive smoking before reading this book!

Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) as a harmful influence on the health of nonsmokers has been a controversial topic since the early 1980s. The International Conference on Indoor Air Quality held in Tokyo examined in great detail the relationship between passive smoking and lung cancer as revealed by a large cohort study. The participants were all highly qualified and experienced experts of world renown in their own fields of specialty. The deleterious effect of cigarette smoking on health is considered an established fact and as such has been used as a basic weapon in anti-smoking campaigns. There are, however, some questionable areas such as confronting variables, degree of correlation, the overall consistency of the data, and the problems of ETS measurement. Reports on other indoor pollution problems such as the presence of No2, CO, and particulates in indoor air, together with the problem of indoor air pollution in the lesser-developed countries were also given. This collection of papers will contribute greatly to research into tobacco smoking epidemiology and assist in establishing a clear focus on an issue which has tended to become hopelessly obscured.