The Carcinogenicity of Wood Soot from the Chimney
of a Smoked Sausage Factory
Edith Sulman, M.Sc., and Felix Sulman, M.D., V.M.D.
(From the tlormone Research Lab,Jratory o/the Hebrew Unit'ersity, lerttsalem, Palestine)
(Received for publication February 1, 1946)
TECHNIC
In the course of a study of the estrogenic activity ot
plant materials in this laboratory (21) our attention
The soot was obtained from the smoking chamber
was drawn to the fact that wood soot extracts have a of a sausage factory in which eucalyptus timber was
slight estrogenic activity. It seemed of interest to ascerused for the smoking, where it had formed thick,
tain whether this estrogenic activity is combined with black, coal-like masses. It was used either as fragments
a carcinogenic action.
for implantation, or extracted from pulverized maIn 1922 Passey (4) reported that extracts of soot terial with ether and afterwards with alcohol in a
collected from chimneys in England can evoke skin Soxhlet, and then injected. The extracts were pooled,
warts in animals. The well-known occurrence ot
the ether was evaporated at 40 ~ C., and the alcoholic
scrotal carcinoma in chimney-sweeps, first described by remnant was diluted with 96 per cent alcohol to a
Percivall Pott (1775), has been associated with the concentration that was one-tenth of the lethal dose
formation of carcinogenic substances in burning coal. for mice when 1 drop of the solution was licked. This
Brownlie (1) has suggested that organic products of precaution was taken in order to avoid primary morthe decomposition of carbonaceous materials under
tality in mice painted with the extract, and secondary
high temperature conditions (especially bituminous mortality in those sharing the same cage, for it is well
coal, petroleum oil, coal-tar pitch, briquettes, illuminat- known that mice sometimes lick extracts applied to
ing gas, smoked foods, shale oils, etc.) can act a': the skins of their cage mates. Since separation of the
carcinogens. In numerous papers Roffo (5-17) has mice used for this experiment was not advisabh', care
asserted that sometimes carcinogenic substances are was taken to rub the soot extract well into the skin;
formed by the burning at high tcmperatures of tobacco thus optimal resorption ensued and little residue reand coffee. Widmark (20) produced mammary adeno
mained on the skin to be licked.
carcinomas in 40 per cent of female mice by applying
FIRST SFRIES
extracts of roasted (275 ~ C.) horse muscle, coffee, and
brown butter. The spontaneous frequency of maligThirty-six adult rats in all were implanted with
nant tumors among his females was, however, rather
pieces of soot weighing 5 to 20 mgm. in 18 (females,
high (10 per cent). Liu and t-Iu (3) produced papil- weighing 120 gin.) the particles were implanted sublomas in 4 out of 230 mice with tar obtained by cutaneously near the right axilla; in the other 18
destructive distillation of various vegetable foodstuffs.
(males, weighing 150 gin.) the implantation was made
Dickens and Weil-Malherbe (2) produced 1 experi- in the scrotal sac between the testicles. In thc male
mental skin papilloma and 8 pulmonary adenomas by group tumor formation did not occur in the course of
means of wood smoke in 17 mice. Rats fed with
289 years, a result that may have been due to low
smoked fish and meat did not, however, develop tu- responsiveness of the site ,of implantation. Of the 18
mors during 20 months of observation. The experi- females that had been implanted with the soot subments of Steiner, Steele, and Koch (18) suggest the cutaneously 3 reacted with sarcoma formation at the
possible carcinogenicity of overcooked meat, heated
site of implantation after 12, 17, and 24 months recholesterol, acrolein, and heated sesame oil. Whereas spectively. These sarcomas did not rnetastasize in the
heating up to 300 ~ C. did not produce carcinogenic original animals. When transplanted into 30 rats a
substances, sesame oil that had been heated to 350 ~ C. take of about 50 per cent was recorded. In 36 male
was carcinogenic in 3 out of 9 mice.
and female controls observed during the same interval
no tumor was found.
In view of these findings we undertook to ascertain:
(a) whether soot from wood is carcinogenic in our
SECOND SERIES
rat and mouse strains, which normally have a natural
Ten
adult
female
mice were treated with an alcotumor incidence of about 0.1 per cent;
(b) whether the daily consumption of unlimited holic extract of soot on the dorsal skin of the neck
quantities of smoked sausage is carcinogenic for once daily for 2 years. All in this group developed a
cataract within a quarter of a year, a finding that suganimals.
366
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Sulman and Sulman--Carcinogenicity of Wood Soot
gests the presence of derivatives of the n a p h t h a l e n e
group. All the animals, f u r t h e r m o r e , s h o w e d perman e n t estrus, w h i c h w o u l d indicate that the extract
contained an estrogenic phenol derivativc. T h c latter
finding is hardly astonishing. N e o p l a s m s occurred in
3 of the animals (30 per cent) and they died of their
t u m o r s after 5, 12, and 21 m o n t h s respectively. T w o
of the t u n m r s were sarcomas, situated in the vicinity of
the u r i n a r y bladder, and one was a carcinoma of this
viscus itself. N o metastases were found. Implantations
were m a d e f r o m each of the 3 tumors intraperitoneally
near the k i d n e y in 20 mice; only 1 take was recorded,
this from a carcinoma implant. N o neoplasms developed in 20 control mice of the same strain d u r i n g an
observation period of 2 years.
THIRD SERIES
T w e n t y adult rats were fed for 2 years on a diet that
contained s m o k e d sausage ad libiturn. N o n e of this
g r o u p reacted with t u m o r formation d u r i n g the period
of the experiment.
DISCUSSION
T h e c o n s u m p t i o n of s m o k e d sausage over a period
of m o r e than 2 years did not cause tumors in rats.
H o w e v e r , the wood s m o k e used for its preparation was
s h o w n to contain substances that were carcinoo~enic for
rats w h e n i n t r o d u c e d subcutaneously, and for mice
w h e n rubbed into the skin. T h e sarcomas :)btained
in 16.6 per cent of the rats following the implantation
of soot particles m a y not appear significant, in view of
the finding by T u r n e r (191 that sterile bakelite disks,
w h e n similarly i m p l a n t e d in rats, elicited sarcomas in
31 per cent of the animals. O u r findings become significant, however, by reason of the carcinogenicity of
the soot extracts for mice (33.3 per cent) w h e n rubbed
into the skin. A f u r t h e r study of the possible carcinogenic role of w o o d soot extracts therefore seems
desirable.
SUMMARY
1. Thirty-six female rats i m p l a n t e d subcutaneously
with fragments of soot from the c h i m n e y of a sausage
factory developed sarcoma in 16.6 per cent of the cases.
N o t u m o r developed in 36 male rats implanted intrascrotally w i t h bits of the same soot.
2. T e n female mice treated for 2 years with an ether
and alcohol extract of w o o d soot s h o w e d t u m o r formation in 3 cases (2 sarcomas and 1 c a r c i n o m a ) .
3. T w e n t y rats fed for 2 years on a diet c o n t a i n i n g
an u n l i m i t e d a m o u n t of s m o k e d sausage failed to
develop tumors.
4. T h e conflicting finding, carcinogenic effect in
parenteral t r e a t m e n t versus absence of carcinogenic
effect after oral administration, indicates the need for
f u r t h e r study of the carcinogenic activity of s m o k e d
food, in view of the practical importance of the problem for h u m a n nutrition.
367
ACKNOWI.ED(;MENTS
Our thank,~ are duc to l)n,f. B. Z,)ndck and Pro[. I.. Halber~.~acdtcr for their helpful suggc~ti(>ns in the preparation of
this paper.
\Vc arc indebted t() Mr. I. "Famari for his skillful technical
assistance.
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Downloaded from cancerres.aacrjournals.org on June 14, 2017. © 1946 American Association for Cancer
Research.
The Carcinogenicity of Wood Soot from the Chimney of a
Smoked Sausage Factory
Edith Sulman and Felix Sulman
Cancer Res 1946;6:366-367.
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