Arsenical air pollution and lung cancer.

Average mortality-rates from lung cancer for White males and females in the U.S.A. 1950-69 WERE SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED IN COUNTIES WITH COPPER, LEAD, OR ZINC SMELTING AND REFINING INDUSTRIES, BUT NOT IN COUNTIES WHERE OTHER NON-FERROUS ORES ARE PROCESSED. The excess mortality was not attributed to differences in geographic region, population density, urbanisation, socioeconomic status, or other manufacturing processes. The findings suggest the influence of community air pollution from industrial emissions containing inorganic arsenic.