Bowen's disease and arsenism from tobacco smoke: an association?

Bowen's disease has long has been associated with arsenic ingestion. Due mostly to arsenic-containing insecticides, the arsenic content of American tobacco was quite high until the early 1960s. A chart review of sixteen patients seen with Bowen's disease in the past five years showed that eleven (including five women) had been smokers in the 1950s. While these data may be insignificant, this possible association deserves further analysis. Arsenism from tobacco might explain the discordant results of the studies on the carcinogenicity of psoralen/ultraviolet A.