The purpose of this international conference is to bring together scientists involved in regulatory, applied, and fundamental toxicology to discuss the relevance for human health of nasal tumors found in rodent bioassays. Formaldehyde is only one of several compounds capable of producing nasal tumors in rodents. ln recent NTP bioassays the nasal mucosa was the fourth most important site of carcinogenesis, after liver, kidney and mammary gland. The interaction of scientists that this conference aims at is intended to yield a better understanding of the pathobiological and environmental factors involved in nasal carcinogenesis in rodents, leading to some guidance for establishing the carcinogenic potential and assessing the health risk for man of chemicals that cause nasal tumors in rodents. Additional goals is to update the knowledge about chemical-environmental factors related to nasal tumors in man, such as aldehydes, nickel and wood dust. The current status of what is understood about the mechanisms of nasal carcinogenesis will be discussed in depth. Finally regulation of nasal carcinogens in differents countries will be discussed. ln addition, it is intended to draft recommendations for research needed to enhance our capability to judge the relevance for human health of exposure to such chemicals. Senior investigators and regulatory scientists in the field will be invited as speakers, discussants and session chairpersons. The participation of junior investigators will be encouraged by making available a limited number of travel stipends and creating the possibility for the presentation of recent results relevant to the conference topic. The proceedings, including full papers by the speakers, as well as a report on the various discussions, will be published promptly.
