Case-control study of brain tumor deaths among employees at a chemical manufacturing plant.
Recent studies have reported an increased risk of death from primary intracranial neoplasms among employees in the petrochemical industry. One of them, a NIOSH/OSHA county-based case-control study, suggested a twofold risk for having ever been employed at the Texas Division of Dow Chemical U.S.A. Using the case-control approach, we compared 24 brain tumor cases among employees at this large, diverse chemical plant in Texas with two sets of age-, race-, and sex-matched controls to determine if a risk could be associated with job assignment in a particular process area, with presumptive exposure to a major process chemical, or with a number of other occupationally related and unrelated variables. Results implicated no specific area or chemical. The only significant findings were an elevated odds for being hired prior to 1950 and a negative correlation with employment greater than 10 years. Further, preliminary calculations of expected deaths from primary intracranial neoplasms among the employee cohort suggested there was no excessive risk.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000401:mortality*; D002617:Chemical Industry; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000401:mortality*; D013781:Texas