This volume of the IARC Monographs provides an assessment of the carcinogenicity of 18 chemicals present in industrial and consumer products or food (natural constituents, contaminants, or flavorings) or occurring as water-chlorination by-products. The compounds evaluated include the widely used plasticizer di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate and the food contaminant 4-methylimidazole. In view of the limited agent-specific information available from epidemiological studies, the IARC Monographs Working Group relied mainly on carcinogenicity bioassays, and mechanistic and other relevant data to evaluate the carcinogenic hazards to humans exposed to these agents.

"This publication represents the views and expert opinions of an IARC Working Group on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risk to Humans, which met in Lyon, 8-15 October 2013."

This eighty-ninth volume of the IARC Monographs is the third and last of a series on tobacco-related agents. Volume 83 reported on the carcinogenicity of tobacco smoke and involuntary smoking (second-hand smoke or environmental tobacco smoke) (IARC 2004a). Volume 85 summarized the evidence on the carcinogenic risk of chewing betel quid with and without tobacco (IARC 2004b). That volume explored the variety of products chewed in South Asia and other parts of the word that contain areca nut in combination with other ingredients, often including tobacco. In this eighty-ninth volume, the carcinogenic risks associated with the use of smokeless tobacco, including chewing tobacco and snuff, are considered in a first monograph. The second monograph reviews some tobacco-specific nitrosamines. These agents were evaluated earlier in Volume 37 of the Monographs (IARC 1985) and information gathered since that time has been summarized and evaluated.

This volume of the IARC Monographs provides evaluations of the carcinogenicity of some organophosphate insecticides and herbicides, including diazinon, glyphosate, malathion, parathion, and tetrachlorvinphos. Diazinon acts on a wide range of insects on crops, gardens, livestock, and pets, but most uses have been restricted in the USA, Canada, and the European Union since the 1980s. Glyphosate is the most heavily used agricultural and residential herbicide in the world, and has been detected in soil, air, surface water, and groundwater, as well as in food. Malathion is one of the oldest and most widely used organophosphate insecticides, and has a broad spectrum of applications in agriculture and public health, notably mosquito control. The insecticide parathion has been largely banned or restricted throughout the world due to toxicity to wildlife and humans. Tetrachlorvinphos is banned in the European Union, but continues to be used in the USA and elsewhere as an insecticide on animals, including in pet flea collars. The IARC Monographs Working Group reviewed epidemiological evidence, animal bioassays, and mechanistic and other relevant data to reach conclusions as to the carcinogenic hazard to humans of these agents.

This volume of the IARC Monographs provides an assessment of the carcinogenicity of fluoro-edenite fibrous amphibole, silicon carbide fibres and whiskers, and carbon nanotubes, including single-walled and multiwalled types. None of these agents had been assessed previously by the IARC Monographs Working Group. The Working Group relied mainly on epidemiological studies to evaluate the carcinogenic hazard to humans exposed to fluoro-edenite fibrous amphibole, an environmental contaminant that was reported to cause mesothelioma in the regional population of Biancavilla, Sicily, Italy. Silicon carbide fibres are by-products of the manufacture of silicon carbide particles by the Acheson process; silicon carbide whiskers are produced by other processes. The evaluations of the fibres and of the occupational exposures associated with the Acheson process were mainly based on epidemiological studies, whereas the assessment of the whiskers--in the absence of epidemiological--was based on carcinogenicity bioassays and consideration of their physical properties. In view of the absence of epidemiological studies on carbon nanotubes and the limited information available from mechanistic data, the evaluations of single-walled and multiwalled carbon nanotubes relied essentially on carcinogenicity bioassays.