We investigated effects of several chemical carcinogens, i.e., benzo(α)pyrene (BP),7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA), nitrosomethyl urea (NMU), and nicotine on the replication, cytolyticity, DNA synthesis, and protein synthesis of type 1 herpes simplex virus (HSV-1) in viral infected Vero cell monolayers. We observed that the BP and DMBA did not show such activity. All chemical carcinogens did not inhibit the synthesis of viral DNA, but the expression of gamma viral proteins that are expressed from the newly synthesized progeny viral DNA was somewhat notably inhibited by BP and DMBA. However, the synthesis of alpha and beta viral proteins was not altered by the chemical carcinogens. These data indicate that the gamma viral proteins expressed from the newly synthesized DNA in the presence of chemical carcinogens in the culture medium may be defective. This is further supported by the fact that the virus fail to replicate in the presence of these chemical carcinogens, in spite of viral DNA and proteins are somewhat normally synthesized.