Occupation and cancers of the lung and bladder: a case-control study in Bombay.
Associations between occupation and cancers of the lung (n = 246) and bladder (n = 153) were examined in a case-control study. Controls (n = 212) comprised cases of oral (75%) and pharyngeal cancers (13%) and non-neoplastic oral diseases (12%) at the same hospital. Only males were studied. A personal interview was conducted and a lifetime occupational history and information on demographic and relevant confounding factors including tobacco use were obtained. For lung cases, comparing 'ever' employed with 'never' employed in a particular occupation, significantly elevated risks (adjusted for smoking) were found for textile workers (odds ratio [OR] = 1.99, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.3-3.6) and cooks (OR = 4.48, 95% CI: 1.2-16.9). High risks were also observed among ship and dockyard workers (OR = 2.87, 95% CI: 0.8-10.1) and wood workers (OR = 2.88, 95% CI: 0.9-9.6). For bladder cancers, significantly elevated risk was observed only for chemical/pharmaceutical plant workers (OR = 4.48; 95% CI: 1.2-16.5). Two other sets of risk estimates were obtained: one by comparison with a second unexposed group made up of occupations where there was little likelihood of exposure to any cancer-causing occupational agent, and the other by fitting logistic regression models to the data. All methods yielded similar risk estimates. Tobacco smoking but not tobacco chewing was a risk factor for both sites.
Epidemiology Unit, Cancer Research Institute, Tata Memorial Centre, Parel, Bombay, India.
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Notani
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Shah
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Jayant
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Balakrishnan
D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002617:Chemical Industry; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D009790:Occupations; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013783:Textile Industry; D001749:Urinary Bladder Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014934:Wood