Cancer in Illinois construction workers: A study

Abstract

A series of case-control studies using subjects from the Illinois State Cancer Registry have been conducted. Logistic regression was used to control for age and history of tobacco and alcohol use. Construction workers were consistently found to be younger than other subjects and to have used alcohol and tobacco more often. Significant positive associations between cancer of the stomach and welding (odds ratio [OR] = 2.11, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.09, 4.09), lung cancer and employment in the construction industry (OR = 1.18, 95% CI = 1.02, 1.26), and lung cancer and welding (OR = 1.68, 95% CI = 1.03, 2.76) were found. Significant negative associations between cancer of the colon and welding (OR = .54, 95% CI = .29, 1.00), cancer of the prostate and employment in the construction industry (OR = .76, 95% CI = .65, .89), cancer of the prostate and plumbing (OR = .44, 95% CI = .38, .50), cancer of the prostate and metal working (OR = .43, 95% CI = .19, .93), and bladder cancer and employment as an electrician (OR = .60, 95% CI = .36, 1.00) suggests that construction workers did not consistently experience excesses of cancers known to be associated with tobacco use, and an overall excess of sites not known to be related to tobacco use may have occurred.

Risk for prostate cancer by occupation and industry: A 24-state death certificate study

“…Work in this occupation may result in exposure to some known carcinogens (e.g., silica, asbestos), but they have not been related to prostate cancer. Studies reporting prostate cancer risk in brickmasons [Hall and Rosenman, 1991], and in the broad group of construction workers, have not found any excess of risk [Le Marchand et al, 1991;Keller and Howe, 1993;Robinson et al, 1995;Van der Gulden et al, 1995]; however, risk was increased among U.S. veterans [Hrubec et al, 1992]. In contrast to the similar study conducted in Washington state [NIOSH, 1997], we found elevated risks for some other blue-collar occupations, including knitting and weaving machine operators, extruding machine operators, operating engineers (all among African Americans), and captains, fishing vessels and longshore equipment operators (among Caucasian men), and industries such as yarn, thread, fabric and mill (for African Americans), electrical machinery (for Caucasians), miscellaneous transport equipment, electrical and gas, furniture, and petroleum production.…”

Prostate Cancer: An Occupational Hazard?

“…Nevertheless, a study of the Swedish Construction Workers cohort suggested that an elevated BMI was a significant contributor to aggressive PCa among men with this occupation [18]. Another study found significantly elevated risk of PCa among constructional workers [19]; however, cigarette smoking was proposed to be the main contributing factor for cancer among these construction workers. We also found a significantly higher proportion of construction laborers reported being current (30%) or past (53%) smokers in our study [13].…”

Update of a meta-analysis on lung cancer and welding

“…On the basis of the detailed assessment, 20 papers were excluded according to the following systematic exclusion criteria: (i) if later updates were available (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20), (ii) if it was a mortality statistic (21) and a cancer morbidity study was available (22), (iii) the papers republished data (23,24) that were already available elsewhere (25,26), (iv) the metal welded was atypical (lead) or the welders were resistence welders (27,28), and (v) the description of the welder population was insufficient (29).…”