Benzene and worker cancers: 'An American tragedy'

The scary thing is how this type of behaviour has been happening for decades (maybe centuries) and implies that the scientific literature on a whole range of subjects simply cannot be trusted 100%.

If there is or was an economic, political or idealogical motive for skewing or misreporting something then it is quite probably there distorting the historical record.

My father was an organic chemist and worked at the DuPont Experimental Station from 1947 to 1977. He was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 1977 and died after several months of chemotherapy. Our family suspected that exposure to benzene in his research lab at DuPont contributed to his illness, but we had no proof. I remember hearing stories about how, in the early years, lab workers commonly used benzene as a general cleaning solvent.

I witnessed the cavalier attitude towards benzene and its relatives when I was in grad school (chemistry). But had I learned already during my bachelors how carcinogenic they were and stayed as safe as I could. I gave up and became a programmer instead (for many reasons including when software blows up you don't usually die). This was a long time ago but I doubt much has changed.