Water pollution and cancer in Israeli navy divers.

摘要

A navy diver became ill with cancer shortly after retiring at around age 40. He wondered why he became ill at such a young age and looked back to his exposures while diving in smelly and polluted waters during his many years of service. He got together with Dr. Elihu D. Richter, well known for his court appearances and expert testimony supporting claims of causality between cancer and work exposures. They set out to show that there was a connection between the officer's exposure and his ill health. They defined a cohort of divers by getting written material from one retired senior officer and from interviews with other senior officers. They reported 51 cancers (44 after excluding malignant melanoma) in 682 Navy divers, an increased risk of 2.3 compared to expected cases in the general population.1 On the other hand, a committee of scientists appointed by the Israeli Government identified 4256 soldiers from lists who were at any time in the Israeli Naval Diving unit.2 Only 1541 of these soldiers were actually exposed to the Kishon waters and sediments, and of those only 39 were found in the Israeli-Cancer Registry.