Cancer incidence among workers with blood lead measurements in two countries

ObjectiveStudy carcinogenicity of inorganic lead, classified as ‘probably carcinogenic’ to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (brain, lung, kidney and stomach).MethodsWe conducted internal and external analyses for cancer incidence in two cohorts of 29 874 lead-exposed workers...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Occupational and environmental medicine (London, England) England), 2019-09, Vol.76 (9), p.603-610
Main Authors: Steenland, Kyle, Barry, Vaughn, Anttila, Ahti, Sallmen, Markku, Mueller, William, Ritchie, Peter, McElvenny, Damien Martin, Straif, Kurt
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Blood
Blood levels
Brain
Brain cancer
Brain research
cancer
Carcinogenicity
Carcinogens
Cohort Studies
Data analysis
Emigration
epidemiology
Esophagus
Exposure
Female
Finland - epidemiology
Gender
Glioma
Health risk assessment
Humans
Incidence
Larynx
Lead
Lead - adverse effects
Lead - blood
Lead content
Lead poisoning
Lung cancer
Lymphoma
Male
Melanoma
Meningioma
Mortality
Neoplasms - blood
Neoplasms - epidemiology
Occupational Diseases - blood
Occupational Diseases - epidemiology
Occupational exposure
Occupational Exposure - adverse effects
occupational health practice
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Population
Proportional Hazards Models
Rectum
Surveillance
Trends
United Kingdom - epidemiology
Workers
Workplace
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:ObjectiveStudy carcinogenicity of inorganic lead, classified as ‘probably carcinogenic’ to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (brain, lung, kidney and stomach).MethodsWe conducted internal and external analyses for cancer incidence in two cohorts of 29 874 lead-exposed workers with past blood lead data (Finland, n=20 752, Great Britain=9122), with 6790 incident cancers. Exposure was maximum measured blood lead.ResultsThe combined cohort had a median maximum blood lead of 29 μg/dL, a mean first blood lead test of 1977, and was 87% male. Significant (p40 μg/dL) showed a significant excess for lung cancer in both countries combined, and significant excesses in Finland for brain and lung cancer. The Great Britain data were limited by small numbers for some cancers, and limited variation in exposure.ConclusionsWe found strong positive incidence trends with increasing blood lead level, for several outcomes in internal analysis. Two of these, lung and brain cancer, were sites of a priori interest.
ISSN:1351-0711
1470-7926
DOI:10.1136/oemed-2019-105786