Lorenzo Tomatis

After a brief stint as a medical officer with a regiment of Italian Army Alpine troops, he obtained a degree in occupational health in 1957—his interest in the role of chemicals as potential causes of cancer having become evident.

Peers have said of them: "To [maintain] the series for 20 years at such a high level is an unprecedented achievement" and: "...A box of jewels of the knowledge of mankind on chemical carcinogenesis.

Indeed, an agent's IARC classification as a carcinogen has been the basis of innumerable actions and proposals (not all successful) to stop and reduce exposure to chemicals.

In January 1982, in recognition of his outstanding career and contributions in understanding cancer causation and prevention, Tomatis was elected by the WHO member nations as the second director of IARC.

on 21 September 2007 Tomatis became Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the ISDE - International Society of Doctors for the Environment (Arezzo, Italy).

His vast experience and expertise in this field prompted him to take politically courageous positions on certain topics, as on waste incineration: "It is dubious that new generations may forgive us for this environmental suicide.

“On Friday, 21 September 2007, in Lyon, France, we lost a great human being, a staunch advocate for public health, a thorough and delving scientist, and a humanitarian par excellence.

At the same time, Tomatis was respected, admired, and loved by his colleagues and fellow public health advocates as a man whose warmth, humor, strength, and sweetness were as compelling as his command of science.”[3] “Renzo’s name and scientific prestige are intimately linked to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) programme on the Monographs on the evaluation of carcinogenic risk of chemicals to man, three volumes of which have been prepared every year since 1972 and whose 100th volume (for a total of well over one thousand agents) is expected for 2009.

(...) When the Monograph programme started, forty years ago, three ideas of Renzo were revolutionary: evaluating scientific data meant a multidisciplinary approach by a working group, interpreting findings for the purpose of public health required a major contribution from basic science, and the working group had to explain his rationale and the sequence of thoughts leading to evaluation in a transparent way, using terms understandable also to the lay people, with no loss of rigour.

An avowed student and scholar of literature, the arts, the history of medicine and science, and chemical carcinogenesis, he believed in and wrote about these issues throughout his storied life.