A case-control study of skin cancer in the tire and rubber manufacturing industry.

A case-control study was conducted in the tire and rubber manufacturing industry to examine the association of squamous cell carcinoma of the skin with rubber manufacturing materials presumed to be contaminated by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Sixty-five cases were compared to 254 matched controls for exposure to carbon black, extender oils, lubricating oils, rubber solvents, and rubber stock. Both magnitude and duration of exposure were compared using data from company personnel records. Rubber stock and lubricating oils were associated with skin cancer. The relative risk (RR) associated with the highest levels of rubber stock exposure was 2.2, and with the highest level of lubricating oil exposure it was 6.5. In analysis of subgroups of study members, the associations were strongest among workers who were born after 1900 (rubber stock, RR = 11.6; lubricating oil, RR = 4.5) and among workers whose skin cancer was diagnosed before the age of seventy (rubber stock, RR = 23.2; lubricating oil, RR = 28.3).