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Title
Cancer Morbidity in Lamp Manufacturing Workers
Date of this Version
September 1988
Abstract
A historical prospective study of cancer in lamp manufacturing workers in one plant
was conducted. All men and women who worked for a total of at least 6 months and
were employed at some time between 1960 and 1975 were included. Work histories
were abstracted and subjects were divided according to whether they had worked in
the coiling and wire drawing area (CWD). Cancer morbidity from 1964 to 1982 was
ascertained via the provincial registry, and was compared with the site-specific incidence
in Ontario, adjusting for age, sex and calendar period. Of particular interest were
primary breast and gynecological cancers in women.
The cancers of a priori concern were significantly increased in women in CWD, but
not elsewhere in the plant. The excess was greatest in those with more than 5 yr exposure
(in CWD) and more than 15 yr since first working in CWD, with eight cases
of breast and gynecological cancers observed in this category compared with 2.67 expected.
Only three cancers occurred in men in CWD.
Environmental measurements had not been made in the past and little information
was available on substances used in the 1940s and 1950s, the period when the women
with the highest excess began employment. It is known that methylene chloride and
trichlorethylene have been used, but not enough is known about the dates and patterns
of use to draw any conclusions about their relationship with the increase in disease.
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Comments
Published in American Journal of Industrial Medicine 14 (1988), pp. 281–290. Copyright © 1988 Alan R. Liss Inc./John Wiley & Sons. Used by permission.