Cancer incidence among male salaried employees at a smeltery in northern Sweden.

This study focuses on mortality and cancer incidence among the male salaried employees at a copper smeltery in northern Sweden, where previously an increased lung cancer risk had been demonstrated among blue-collar workers, with all likelihood due to arsenic exposure. During the period 1928-1979 there has been 1,255 male salaried employees and 6,334 male blue-collar workers. Three cohorts were formed; those who had worked only as salaried employees, those who had worked only as blue-collar workers and those had worked in both job categories. The mortality among the entire group of salaried employees was comparatively lower than that of Sweden as a whole. The incidence of lung cancer was highest among those who had worked in both job categories, most of them former blue-collar workers. The trends in lung cancer incidence among the blue-collar workers along and among those who had had both types of jobs showed the same pattern, with a peak in the 1970s. The decrease in this trend started earlier among the salaried employees. When job category and employment cohort were analyzed together the highest risk was confirmed for those having been employed in both job categories.