Cancer mortality in a cohort of continuous glass filament workers.
OBJECTIVE
To examine cancer mortality in continuous glass filament workers.


METHODS
A cohort of 936 continuous glass filament workers employed in a plant from northern Italy since January 1976 was followed-up through December 2003, for a total of 19,987 man-years.


RESULTS
Overall, 144 deaths were observed compared with 160.8 expected based on regional death rates (standardized mortality ratio [SMR] = 0.90, 95% CI = 0.76 to 1.05). There were 53 deaths from all cancers (SMR = 1.01, 95% CI = 0.75 to 1.32), and 21 from lung cancer (SMR = 1.23, 95% CI = 0.76 to 1.89). There was no consistent relation with risk for age at first employment, time since first or last employment, or duration of employment for any of the causes considered.


CONCLUSIONS
Although limited in size, this study provides no evidence that continuous glass filament workers experience a significant increased risk of cancer, including respiratory cancer.
Pira
Enrico
E
Dipartimento di Traumatologia, Ortopedia e Medicina del Lavoro, Università di Torino, Turin, Italy.
Manzari
Marco
M
Gallus
Silvano
S
Negri
Eva
E
Bosetti
Cristina
C
Romano
Canzio
C
McLaughlin
Joseph K
JK
Boffetta
Paolo
P
La Vecchia
Carlo
C
D000328:Adult; D002423:Cause of Death; D005898:Glass; D006801:Humans; D019570:Inhalation Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality*; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000401:mortality*; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D012307:Risk Factors