[Hodgkin's disease and occupation].

In order to discuss the hypothesized existence of occupational risk factors in the etiology of Hodgkin's disease (HD), the available literature data are reviewed. The occupations most often considered to be at increased risk of the disease are woodworking, school teaching, hospital occupations and occupations entailing exposure to chemicals. The association between HD and employment in wood industry suggest that exposure to unknown occupational factors may play a role as etiologic agent in this disease. A number of chemical substances that are regularly used may be suspected as causative factors. There are many discrepancies among the results of the studies on the association between school teaching and HD. To date no certain conclusion may be drawn from the presented data. However it has been suggested that the reported excess risk for HD among teachers may be explicable by social class gradient for the disease. The existence of risk factors other than viral may explain the excess risk among physicians and nurses. Because of the characteristics of some highly reactive chemicals their etiologic role may not be underestimated. An association between HD and occupations entailing exposure to various chemicals (organic solvents, benzene, phenoxy acids, chlorophenols) was shown; however no definitive conclusion may be drawn. There are increasing findings that point out the importance of the association between some occupations and development of HD. In spite of the evidence of a link between exposure to various chemicals and HD, there is a clear need to evaluate dose-response relationship between specific type and amount of chemicals and the disease, in order to provide some of the answer we need about the etiology of HD.