Faculty Collaboration Database

Mortality among chemical plant workers exposed to acrylonitrile and other substances. Am J Ind Med 1999 Oct;36(4):423-36

Date

09/02/1999

Pubmed ID

10470007

DOI

10.1002/(sici)1097-0274(199910)36:4<423::aid-ajim3>3.0.co;2-m

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-0032869012 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   18 Citations

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To examine the association between exposure to acrylonitrile (AN) and cancer mortality by performing an independent and extended historical cohort study of workers from a chemical plant in Lima, Ohio included in a recent NCI-NIOSH study.

METHODS: Subjects were 992 white males who were employed for three or more months between 1960 and 1996. We identified 110 deaths and cause of death for 108. Worker exposures were estimated quantitatively for AN and qualitatively for nitrogen products. Statistical analyses included U.S. and local county-based SMRs and internal relative risk regression of internal cohort rates.

RESULTS: No statistically significant excess mortality risks were observed among the total cohort for the cancer sites implicated in previous studies: stomach, lung, breast, prostate, brain, and hematopoietic system. We observed a statistically significant bladder cancer excess based on four deaths (SMR=7.01, 95% CI=1.91-17.96) among workers not exposed to AN. Among 518 AN-exposed workers, we observed a not statistically significant excess of lung cancer based on external (SMR=1.32, 95% CI=.60-2.51) and internal (RR=1.98, 95% CI=.60-6.90) comparisons. Although the trends were not statistically significant, exposure-response analyses of internal cohort rates showed monotonically increasing lung cancer rate ratios with increasing AN exposure, with RRs exceeding 2.0 in the highest exposure categories.

CONCLUSIONS: With the possible exception of lung cancer, this study provides little evidence that exposure to AN at levels experienced by Lima plant workers is associated with an increased risk of death from any cause including the implicated cancer sites.

Author List

Marsh GM, Gula MJ, Youk AO, Schall LC

Author

Laura Cassidy PhD Associate Dean, Professor in the Institute for Health and Equity department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Acrylonitrile
Adult
Brain Neoplasms
Breast Neoplasms
Chemical Industry
Cohort Studies
Confidence Intervals
Female
Hematologic Neoplasms
Humans
Lung Neoplasms
Male
Middle Aged
National Institutes of Health (U.S.)
Neoplasms
Nitrogen Compounds
Occupational Exposure
Ohio
Prostatic Neoplasms
Regression Analysis
Risk Factors
Stomach Neoplasms
United States
Urinary Bladder Neoplasms