Time trends in occupational risks of lung cancer among Swedish men from 1961-1979.

Using data from the Swedish Cancer-Environment Register, time trends in the standardized incidence ratio (SIR) for lung cancer 1961-1979 were studied in different occupations. After adjustments for differences in the SIR with respect to year of birth, only the decreasing trends for blacksmiths and members of the armed forces as well as increasing trends for foundry workers and construction machine operators were significant (p less than 0.05). For bakers and pastry cooks, there was a significant interaction between year of birth and observation period in relation to SIR. Data on smoking habits, obtained from a sample of the population, did not seem to explain the trends.