Abstract
Upon the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the journal, “Genes and Environment”, the history of sciences on environmental mutagens in Japan was reviewed.
Highlights
The history of sciences on environmental mutagens was initiated from the discovery of a high incidence of scrotum cancers in chimney sweeps in London by Pott, P in 1775
A British group represented by Kennaway, EL fractionated tar and purified an active principle, dibenz[a.h]anthracene, a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), to produce cancer by painting it on the back skin of mice
California invented a useful method to detect mutagens and carcinogens in 1973. It is based on incubation of the histidine requirement mutant of bacteria (Salmonella typhimurium), fractions of microsomes and supernatants from the liver of rats and test substances
Summary
The history of sciences on environmental mutagens was initiated from the discovery of a high incidence of scrotum cancers in chimney sweeps in London by Pott, P in 1775. In the beginning when the Japanese Environmental Mutagen Society was established Takashi Sugimura1,2 Upon the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the journal, “Genes and Environment”, the history of sciences on environmental mutagens in Japan was reviewed. This is the first evidence that pure substances from our environment produced cancers.
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