Dibenzopyrene Research Articles

Carcinogenicity of dibenzo (a,1)pyrene.

DIBENZO(a,1)PYRENE (1,2,3,4-dibenzopyrene) has been shown to be present in cigarette smoke condensate and in automobile exhaust gas in small quantities1–5. In view of this, the relative dearth of tests for the carcinogenic activity of this substance is surprising. Though dibenzo(a,1)pyrene was regarded as a strong carcinogen by Cook and Kennaway6 and by Pullman and Pullman7, the only biological evidence we could find in the literature has been presented by Bachmann et al.8. These authors placed a 0.3 per cent dibenzo(a,1)pyrene solution in benzene on two mice. After 6 months one mouse died. The remaining mouse lived for 262 days and had developed an epithelioma. To our knowledge no other group of workers has reported the carcinogenic activity of dibenzo(a,1)pyrene9.