Associations between several sites of cancer and ten types of exhaust and combustion products. Results from a case-referent study in Montreal.

A population-based case-referent study provided information on the associations between several types of cancer and 10 types of exhaust and combustion products. All site-exposure combinations were investigated. An increased lung cancer risk, in particular squamous-cell cancers, due to exposure to gasoline and diesel exhausts was found. Among the associations that have not been subject to previous attention, the most promising leads for further investigation are the possible relations between gasoline and diesel exhaust and colorectal cancers, gasoline exhaust and kidney cancer, coal combustion products and pancreatic cancer (and possibly nonadenocarcinoma lung cancer), combustion products of heating oil and prostatic cancer, and natural-gas combustion products and bladder cancer.