IARC Monographs: 40 Years of Evaluating Carcinogenic Hazards to Humans

Josep Maria Antó, Manolis Kogevinas and Elisabeth Cardis are the researchers from CREAL, an ISGlobal allied center, who have participated in this paper, led by Neil Pearce, from the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (London), with the participation of other scientists from various disciplines relevant to the identification and hazard evaluation of human carcinogens.

In this paper, published last February 24^th in Environmental Health Perspectives, the researchers have examined criticisms of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classification process to determine the validity of these concerns. The authors review the history of IARC evaluations and describe how they are performed. The researchers have concluded that these recent criticisms are unconvincing. The procedures employed by IARC to assemble Working Groups of scientists from the various discipline and the techniques followed to review the literature and perform hazard assessment of various agents provide a balanced evaluation and an appropriate indication of the weight of the evidence.

The review process has been modified over time and will undoubtedly be altered in the future to improve the process. “The IARC Monographs have made, and continue to make, major contributions to the scientific underpinning for societal actions to improve the public’s health”, explains Dr. Kogenivas.

Reference

Neil E. Pearce, Aaron Blair, Paolo Vineis, Wolfgang Ahrens, Aage Andersen, Josep M. Anto, Bruce K. Armstrong, et al. IARC Monographs: 40 Years of Evaluating Carcinogenic Hazards to Humans. Environ Health Perspect; DOI:10.1289/ehp.1409149