Lundström Nils-Göran, Englyst Vagn, Gerhardsson Lars, Jin Taiyi, Nordberg Gunnar
Environmental Medicine, Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
J Occup Environ Med. 2006 Apr;48(4):376-80. doi: 10.1097/01.jom.0000201556.95982.95.
The objective of this study was to study the impact of work-related exposure to mainly arsenic and lead versus smoking in primary smelter workers developing lung cancer.
In a cohort of 3979 primary smelter workers, 46 subjects had contracted respiratory malignancies. They were compared with 141 age-matched male referents by conditional logistic regression analysis.
Cases showed a significantly higher smoking rate as compared with referents: odds ratio (OR) = 4.0; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.6-10.1; P = 0.003. When restricted to smokers (33 cases, 63 referents), the cumulative air arsenic exposure index, but not the lead exposure indices, was significantly higher among the cases: OR = 1.07; 95% CI = 1.02-1.11; P = 0.005.
Cumulative arsenic exposure and smoking were identified as risk factors for the development of lung cancer; lead exposure, however, was not.
