Mortality from all cancers of asbestos factory workers in east London 1933-80
G Berrya, M L Newhouseb, (died 15 February 2000), J C Wagnerc, (died 25 May 2000)
a Department of Public
Health and Community Medicine, University of Sydney, New South Wales
2006, Australia, b Formerly TUC
Centenary Institute of Occupational Health, London School of Hygiene
and Tropical Medicine, London, UK, c Formerly MRC Pneumoconiosis Unit,
Penarth, UK
Correspondence to: Dr G Berry geoffb{at}pub.health.usyd.edu.au
Accepted 6 July 2000
OBJECTIVE
To give the
observed and expected deaths due to cancer at all separate sites in
asbestos workers in east London, and to analyse these for overall
effect and exposure-response trend.
METHODSThe mortality
experience of a cohort of over 5000 men and women followed up for over
30 years since first exposure to asbestos has been extracted.
RESULTSThere was a
large excess of deaths due to cancer (537 observed, 222 expected). Most
of these were due to cancer of the lung (232 observed, 77 expected) and
pleural (52) and peritoneal (48) mesothelioma. The exposure-response
trend for all these three causes was highly significant. There was also
an excess of cancer of the colon (27 observed, 15 expected) which was
significantly related to exposure. There were significant excesses of
cancer of the ovary, of the liver, and of the oesophagus but with no consistent relation to exposure.
CONCLUSIONSThe excess
risk of cancer after exposure to asbestos was mainly due to cancer of
the lung and mesothelioma. An exposure related excess of cancer of the
colon was also detected but the possibility that some of these deaths
may have been peritoneal mesotheliomas could not be excluded. There was
no consistent evidence of exposure related excesses at any other site.
Keywords: asbestos; cancer; exposure-response
© 2000 by Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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