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Abstract
An investigation based on a large population-based case-control study in British Columbia, Canada, was conducted to identify high-risk occupations for lung cancer by histological subtypes. Subjects were 14,755 male incident cancer cases for whom lifetime occupational histories and information on smoking and relevant covariates were collected. Occupational associations for 2998 lung cancer cases, including histological subtypes, were assessed by logistic regression using other cancer cases, excluding smoking-related cancers, as controls. An excess risk of lung cancer was found among workers in metal processing, bakers, and ship deck crew for all histological subtypes, and construction workers, chefs and cooks, and medical workers for specific histological subtypes. Occupational associations that are unique to histological subtypes of lung cancer were identified. Owing to a scarcity of literature in this area, future research needs to focus on confirming these histological associations, and identifying the risk from key exposures found within these occupations (e.g., medical radiation, electromagnetic fields, and cooking fumes).
Acknowledgements
Financial support for this project was provided by the McLaughlin foundation and PREECAN award. We gratefully acknowledge Dr. Pierre Band, Dr. Nhu Le, and Raymond Fang from the BC Cancer Agency for providing the data. Dr. Daniel Krewski is the NSERC/ SSHRC/ McLaughlin Chair in Population Health Risk Assessment at the University of Ottawa.
During the course of this analysis, we became aware of an independent but related analysis conducted by MacArthur et al., Am. J. Ind. Med., 2009, to appear. This analysis involved somewhat different analytical methods, but reached generally similar conclusions.
Notes
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NIOSH. 2003. Work-related lung disease surveillance report, 2002. Cincinnati, OH: US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, CDC, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, DHHS(NIOSH) publication no. 2003-111.