Coarse fishing and risk of urothelial cancer.

In a case-control study of 240 men with urothelial cancer diagnosed in 1984 and 240 matched control subjects smoking and coarse fishing were found to be significantly associated with the disease. Duration of exposure to the chrysoidine azo dyes used to stain maggot bait was the most important predictor of risk; 5% of our cases were attributable to exposure to this dye. Chrysoidine dyes are chemically similar to some putative mammalian carcinogens and a constituent of hair dyes.