Mortality and cancer incidence among sawmill workers exposed to chlorophenate wood preservatives.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: This study examined the association between exposure to chlorophenates and the risk of soft tissue sarcoma; non-Hodgkin's lymphoma; Hodgkin's disease; and cancers of the lung, nose, and nasopharynx. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted of 26487 workers employed for at least 1 year between 1950 and 1985 in 11 chlorophenate-using and 3 non-using sawmills in British Columbia, Canada. Exposures by job were ascertained with interviews of senior employees. RESULTS: Probabilistic record linkage to the Canadian Mortality Data Base and the British Columbia Cancer Registry found 4710 deaths between 1950 and 1990, and 1547 incident cases of cancer between 1969 and 1989. None of the cancers of interest had elevated mortality related to chlorophenate exposure. Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma incidence (n = 65) increased with increasing chlorophenate exposure hours, yielding the following standardized incidence ratios: less than 120 hours 0.68; 120 to 1999 hours, 0.59; 2000 to 3999 hours, 1.04; 4000 to 9999 hours, 1.02; and 10000 or more hours, 1.30. CONCLUSIONS: These results are consistent with the borderline positive associations seen in other recently reported studies of chlorophenate-exposed workforces.

Historical Long-term Exposure to Pentachlorophenol Causing Risk of Cancer - A Community Study

“…Case reports and case-control studies of hematopoietic cancers published in the 1980s and 1990s indicated the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, soft-tissue sarcoma and multiple myeloma in relation to pentachlorophenol exposure for (Greene et al, 1978;Bishop et al, 1981;Pearce et al, 1986;Smith et al, 1992;Hardell et al, 1994;Hardell et al, 1995;Kogevinas et al, 1995). In the 1990s and 2000s, four cohort studies reported the results between cancer risk and PCP exposure, and most of them reported weak or no risk of exposure to PCP, the authors infer the non-significant results might due to the less study population and healthy worker effects (Hertzman et al, 1997;Demers et al, 2006;Ramlow et al, 1996;Ruder et al, 2011). After it has been forbidden to use in many countries, a worldwide research suggests that in indoor air, bodies of water, and freshwater sediments around the world, PCP levels has declined over time (Zheng et al, 2011).…”

Comparison of expert-rater methods for assessing psychosocial job strain

“…Over the past decade we have gathered a cohort of approximately 28 000 British Columbia sawmill workers who worked in 1 of 14 sawmills between 1950 and 1998 (20). As part of a study on technological change a subcohort of 9806 workers was identified.…”

Impact of expert versus measurement-based occupational noise exposure estimates on exposure-response relationships

“…The study population was originally enumerated for a study of fungicide exposure and cancer and later expanded to include other health outcomes and exposures, including noise, stress and wood dust (Hertzman et al 1997;Teschke et al 1998). The study cohort consisted of 27,499 male sawmill workers employed one or more years between 1950 and 1995 in 14 sawmills in British Columbia (BC), Canada.…”