American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access originally published online on August 9, 2007
American Journal of Epidemiology 2007 166(9):1005-1014; doi:10.1093/aje/kwm183
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ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS |
Occupational Exposure to Lead Compounds and Risk of Cancer among Men: A Population-based Case-Control Study
1 INRS–Institut Armand-Frappier, University of Quebec, Laval, Quebec, Canada
2 Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Correspondence to Dr. Marie-Claude Rousseau, INRS–Institut Armand-Frappier, 531 Boulevard des Prairies, Laval, Quebec, Canada H7V 1B7 (e-mail: marie-claude.rousseau{at}iaf.inrs.ca).
Received for publication November 8, 2006. Accepted for publication May 17, 2007.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer recently classified inorganic lead as a probable carcinogen, while organic lead remained unclassifiable. Uncertainty persists because of limited epidemiologic evidence. The authors addressed the relation between occupational exposure to lead and the risk of 11 types of cancer among men in a case-control study conducted in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in the 1980s. Incident cases (n = 3,730) and general population controls (n = 533) were interviewed to elicit information on job history and potential confounders. Expert chemists translated each job into a list of substances to which the subject had potentially been exposed. Exposure to lead was classified into three categories: organic lead (3% of subjects ever exposed), inorganic lead (17%), and lead in gasoline emissions (39%). Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were estimated by logistic regression using two control groups: general population controls and cancer controls. Stomach cancer was associated with organic lead when the authors used population controls (odds ratio (OR) = 3.0, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.2, 7.3) and cancer controls (OR = 2.0, 95% CI: 1.1, 3.8) and with substantial exposure to lead in gasoline emissions when they used cancer controls (OR = 2.9, 95% CI: 1.4, 5.9). There was no association with inorganic lead and little evidence for associations with other cancer types.
case-control studies; inorganic chemicals; lead; male; neoplasms; occupational exposure; organic chemicals
Abbreviations: IARC, International Agency for Research on Cancer
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M.-C. Rousseau, M.-E. Parent, L. Nadon, B. Latreille, and J. Siemiatycki THE AUTHORS REPLY Am. J. Epidemiol., November 15, 2008; 168(10): 1217 - 1218. [Full Text] [PDF] |
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E. Delzell RE: "OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE TO LEAD COMPOUNDS AND RISK OF CANCER AMONG MEN: A POPULATION-BASED CASE-CONTROL STUDY" 1681012181218 Am. J. Epidemiol., November 15, 2008; 168(10): 1216 - 1217. [Full Text] [PDF] |
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