chemical substances; physical and biological factors; genotoxic factors

The difficult evaluation of carcinogenicity of dusts containing quartz and the importance of factors making the results of epidemiological monitoring doubtful, but also the necessity of specification of concepts and critera for evaluation do not allow to answer the question definitively. The high importance of positive evaluation of carcinogenicity of dusts containing quartz in praxis enforces further investigations. From the epidemiological point of view the monitoring of persons with lungs tumor exposed to silicone and also to other dust aerosols, but with no silicosis or pneumoconiosis is concerned.There are also many tasks for experimental research of possible carcinogenic effects of silicone dusts to solve, mainly deeper understanding of differences of reactions to silicone dust at various experimental animals and recognition of conditions and determining factors causing the carcinogenicity.

The present level of scientific knowledge about the influence of enviromental genotoxic factors on the organism of plants and animals including man forms the real preconditions for understanding the risk extent. The increased significance of chemical safety needs to be mentioted more and more for these reasons. Genotoxic effect of enviromental factors and life style have been increased by a professional exposition in the case of man. This represents one of the general risks influencing health conditions of human population. The importance of the applied scientific field of genetic toxicology has been increasing while solving the practical aspects of problems of mutagenicity and carcinogenicity of genotoxicants in the enviroment. This is mainly from the point of view of health protection and from the point of view of putting the life of contemporary and future generations of human populations in danger.