Respiratory cancer risks among workers with glutaraldehyde exposure.
OBJECTIVE
Glutaraldehyde is a substance that represents a substantial portion of the human exposure to aldehydes in medicine and industry. Other aldehydes such as formaldehyde have been associated with increased cancer rates of the upper respiratory tract and leukemia. Our study is the only one, to our knowledge, to examine cancer rates among exposed glutaraldehyde workers.


METHODS
In an extended follow up using death certificates, we calculated standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for three cumulative exposure categories of glutaraldehyde. There were 99,730 person-years of observation among unexposed workers, 2934 person-years in the lower exposure category, < 0-100.0 parts per billion (ppb)-years, and 2805 person-years in the higher exposure category of 100.0+ ppb-years.


RESULTS
For all respiratory cancers for these exposure categories, the SMRs were 0.9 (95% CI = 0.7-1.1), 1.0 (95% CI = 0.2-3.0), and 0.3 (95% CI = 0.0-1.5). No increasing trend of SMR with increasing exposure is observed for any cause of death examined. We observed no cancers of the nasal cavity and sinus (0.03 expected), nasopharynx (0.02 expected), or leukemia (0.6 expected) among all glutaraldehyde-exposed workers.


CONCLUSIONS
Although our study findings should be tempered by the small size and the potentially low prevalence of smoking among glutaraldehyde workers, we found no increased rates of respiratory tract cancer or leukemia related to glutaraldehyde exposure.
Dow Chemical Company, 1803 Building, Midland, MI 48674, USA. jjcollins@dow.com
James J
JJ
Collins
Carol
C
Burns
Pam
P
Spencer
Catherine M
CM
Bodnar
Teresa
T
Calhoun
D002423:Cause of Death; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005976:Glutaral / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D007938:Leukemia / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D012142:Respiratory Tract Neoplasms / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000401:mortality; D012306:Risk; D014903:West Virginia / Q000453:epidemiology
D005976:Glutaral