Home > cancer, environment, Environmental Health Perspectives, motor vehicles, respiratory diseases > Lung Cancer and Elemental Carbon Exposure in Trucking Industry Workers

Lung Cancer and Elemental Carbon Exposure in Trucking Industry Workers

June 4, 2012

Lung Cancer and Elemental Carbon Exposure in Trucking Industry Workers
Source: Environmental Health Perspectives

Background: Diesel exhaust has been considered to be a probable lung carcinogen based on studies of occupationally exposed workers. Efforts to define lung cancer risk in these studies have been limited in part by lack of quantitative exposure estimates.

Objectives: We conducted a retrospective cohort study to assess lung cancer mortality risk in US trucking industry workers. Elemental carbon (EC) was used as a surrogate of exposure to engine exhaust from diesel vehicles, traffic, and loading dock operations.

Methods: Work records were available for 31,135 male workers employed in the unionized US trucking industry in 1985. A statistical model based on a national exposure assessment was used to estimate historical work-related exposures to EC. Lung cancer mortality was ascertained through 2000 and associations with cumulative and average EC were estimated using proportional hazards models.

Results: Duration of employment was inversely associated with lung cancer risk consistent with a healthy worker survivor effect and a cohort comprised of prevalent hires. Adjusting for employment duration, there was suggestion of a linear exposure-response relationship. For each 1000 µg/m3-months of cumulative EC, based on a 5-year exposure lag, the Hazard Ratio (HR) = 1.07 (95%CI: 0.99, 1.15) with a similar association for a 10-year exposure lag, HR=1.09 (95%CI: 0.99, 1.20). Average exposure was not associated with relative risk.

Conclusions: Lung cancer mortality in trucking industry workers increased in association with cumulative exposure to EC after adjustment for negative confounding by employment duration.

About these ads
Categories: cancer, environment, Environmental Health Perspectives, motor vehicles, respiratory diseases
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 488 other followers

%d bloggers like this: