Cancer risks among New Zealand meat workers.

Abstract

. Ca ncer risks among New Zealand meat wor kers. Scand J Work Environ Health 1989;15:24-29. The study reports a series of case-referent studies based on the New Zealand Ca ncer Register and involving 19904 male cancer patients aged 20 years or more at the time of registr ation during the period 1980-1984. For each cancer site, the registration s for the remaining sites form ed the referen ce group. An increase d risk for lung (O R 1.30,95 % CI 1.06-1.58) a nd laryngeal (OR 2.01, 95 % CI 1.19-3.39) cancer was found amon g meatw ork ers. It was confined to men aged <65 yea rs at registration. The risk for so ft-tissue sarcoma was elevat ed (OR 1.90,95 % CI 0.90-4.02). Th e risk estimate for all types of leukemia was elevated moderately (OR 1.45,95 % CI 0.90-2.31), but cell typespecific analyses revealed a greater effect for acute myeloid leukemia (OR 2.12, 95 % CI 1.09-4.12).This study adds to the evidence that employment as a rneatw orker is associated with increa sed risk for several forms of can cer .

Work environment and prostate cancer risk

“…James reported an in creased mortality from prostate cancer among meat workers [22]. In other studies, however, no excess risk was found for these occupations [19,21,23,24]. In one earlier study a significantly elevated risk for stock clerks and storekeepers was found [25].…”

Lung cancer among butchers and slaughterhouse workers.

“…Gustavsson et al (13) found an OR of 0.9 for men who had worked with meat packing. Reif et a1 (14) found that only a minority of workers were exposed to PVC decomposition products. This finding is consistent with the work conditions reported for Danish and Swedish butchers.…”

“…Reif et al (14) controlled indirectly for tobacco smoking with data from a national survey which showed the number of current smokers among food and beverage workers to be 47% compared with 38% on the average among employed men. Assuming slaughterhouse workers to have the same smoking habits as workers in the food and beverage industry, Reif et al expected an RR of 1.20 due to smoking alone.…”

“…Several brief reports from the early 1980s ( 1-9) and epidemiologic studies from the late 1980s (10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15) dealt with a poss ible excess risk of lung cancer among butchers. The objective of this article is to address the following que stions: (i) does a comprehensive revi ew of the literature support the existenc e of an excess risk of lung cancer among butchers; (ii) if yes, is thi s excess risk possibly cau sed by exposures in the work en vironment; and (iii ) if yes, what then are the possible etiologic expo sure s?…”

“…_ ----ered various members of the Meatcutte rs' Union in Baltimore (10)(11)(12), and the remaining three were from Sweden (13), New Zealand (14), and the United Kingdom (15). Johnson et al (10)(11)(12) identified 28 901 members of the Meatcutters' Union in Baltimore between July 1949 and December 1979.…”