title: Brain Cancer in Workers Employed at a Laboratory Research Facility.
abstract: An earlier study of research facility workers found more brain cancer deaths than expected, but no workplace exposures were implicated.
  
  
  
  Adding four additional years of vital-status follow-up, we reassessed the risk of death from brain cancer in the same workforce, including 5,284 workers employed between 1963, when the facility opened, and 2007. We compared the work histories of the brain cancer decedents in relationship to when they died and their ages at death.
  
  
  
  As in most other studies of laboratory and research workers, we found low rates of total mortality, total cancers, accidents, suicides, and chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. We found no new brain cancer deaths in the four years of additional follow-up. Our best estimate of the brain cancer standardized mortality ratio (SMR) was 1.32 (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 0.66-2.37), but the SMR might have been as high as 1.69. Deaths from benign brain tumors and other non-malignant diseases of the nervous system were at or below expected levels.
  
  
  
  With the addition of four more years of follow-up and in the absence of any new brain cancers, the updated estimate of the risk of brain cancer death is smaller than in the original study. There was no consistent pattern among the work histories of decedents that indicated a common causative exposure.
authors.affiliation: Health and Human Services, Saginaw Valley State University, University Center, Michigan, United States of America.
authors.forename: James J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Collins
authors.affiliation: Health Services/Epidemiology, The Dow Chemical Company, Midland, Michigan, United States of America.
authors.forename: Thomas John
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Bender
authors.affiliation: Health Services, The Dow Chemical Company, Collegeville, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: Eileen M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Bonner
authors.affiliation: Epidemiology, Kelly Services, South Lake Tahoe, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Kenneth M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Bodner
authors.affiliation: EH&S Delivery Expertise, The Dow Chemical Company, Bristol, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: Alisa M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Kreft
mesh_terms: D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D007753:Laboratories; D008297:Male; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000401:mortality*; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D012106:Research; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology