Greenberg H L, Ott M G, Shore R E
Union Carbide Corporation, Danbury, CT 06817-001.
Br J Ind Med. 1990 Apr;47(4):221-30. doi: 10.1136/oem.47.4.221.
A retrospective cohort study was conducted to examine the mortality experience of 2174 men employed between 1940 and 1978 by a large chemical company and who had been assigned to a chemical production department that used or produced ethylene oxide (EO). Comparisons were made with the general United States population, the regional population, and with a group of 26,965 unexposed men from the same plants. Comparisons with general United States death rates showed fewer deaths than expected in the EO group due to all causes and for total cancers. There was no statistically significant excess of deaths due to any cause. Seven deaths each due to leukaemia and pancreatic cancer were observed with 3.0 and 4.1 deaths expected. Among the subcohort of men who worked where both average and peak exposure levels were probably highest, however, one death due to pancreatic cancer (0.9 expected) and no deaths due to leukaemia were observed. Four of the seven who died from leukaemia and six of the seven who died from pancreatic cancer had been assigned to the chlorohydrin department where the potential for exposure to EO is judged to have been low. The relative risk of death due to each disease was strongly related to duration of assignments to that department. When men who worked in the chlorohydrin department were excluded, there was no evidence for an association of exposure to EO with pancreatic cancer or leukaemia. Together with the failure to show independent EO associations, the chlorohydrin department results suggest that leukaemia and pancreatic cancer may have been associated primarily with production of ethylene chlorohydrin or propylene chlorohydrin, or both. These results emphasise the importance of examining additional concurrent/asynchronous exposures among human populations exposed to EO.
开展了一项回顾性队列研究，以调查1940年至1978年期间受雇于一家大型化学公司、被分配到使用或生产环氧乙烷（EO）的化学生产部门的2174名男性的死亡情况。将其与美国总体人群、地区人群以及来自同一工厂的26965名未接触者进行了比较。与美国总体死亡率相比，EO组因各种原因和所有癌症导致的死亡人数低于预期。没有任何原因导致的死亡人数出现统计学上的显著超额。观察到白血病和胰腺癌各有7例死亡，预期死亡人数分别为3.0例和4.1例。然而，在平均暴露水平和峰值暴露水平可能最高的工作岗位的男性亚组中，观察到1例胰腺癌死亡（预期0.9例），未观察到白血病死亡。死于白血病的7人中，有4人以及死于胰腺癌的7人中，有6人被分配到氯醇部门，据判断该部门接触EO的可能性较低。每种疾病导致死亡的相对风险与在该部门的工作时长密切相关。当排除在氯醇部门工作的男性后，没有证据表明接触EO与胰腺癌或白血病有关。连同未能显示独立的EO关联，氯醇部门的结果表明，白血病和胰腺癌可能主要与氯乙醇或氯丙醇的生产有关，或与两者都有关。这些结果强调了在接触EO的人群中检查其他同时发生/不同时发生的暴露的重要性。
