ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Lymphohaematopoietic cancer risk among chemical workers exposed to benzene

L J Bloemen¹, A Youk², T D Bradley³, K M Bodner⁴, G Marsh⁴

¹ Dow Benelux N.V., Epidemiology, Neely Building, Terneuzen, Netherlands
² GSPH, Department of Biostatistics, University of Pittsburgh, 130 DeSoto Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA
³ The Dow Chemical Company, Global Ind. Hygiene Expertise Center, 1803 Building, Midland, MI 48674, USA
⁴ The Dow Chemical Company, Epidemiology, 1803 Building, Midland, MI 48674, USA

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr L Bloemen
Dow Benelux NV, PO Box 48, 4530 AA Terneuzen, Netherlands; ljbloemen{at}dow.com

Aims: To determine cause specific mortality in a cohort of 2266 chemical workers exposed to benzene in various manufacturing processes after 1935.

Methods: The cohort has accumulated over 80 000 person-years of observation; about 70% of the workers were followed for more than 30 years since first exposure.

Results: Mortality from non-malignant diseases of the blood was increased (SMR 2.17, 95% CI 0.87 to 4.48), and correlated with duration of benzene exposure, although risk had decreased from the previous investigation of this cohort. The risk for leukaemia was slightly above background (SMR 1.14, obs 12, 95% CI 0.59 to 1.99) but has also decreased since the earlier study of this cohort. SMRs for acute non-lymphocytic leukaemia (ANLL), chronic lymphatic leukaemia, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma were 1.11, 0.42, and 1.06 respectively. There was evidence of a weak trend of increasing SMRs for leukaemia and possibly ANLL with increasing low-level cumulative exposure but not with other measures.

Conclusion: Leukaemia and ANLL results were consistent with the mildly increased risk estimates from lower exposure subgroups of the Pliofilm cohort.

Keywords: benzene; chemical workers; mortality; leukaemia; acute myeloid leukaemia; AML; acute non-lymphocytic leukaemia; non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma; NHL

Abbreviations: AML, acute myeloid leukaemia; ANLL, acute non-lymphocytic leukaemia; CLL, chronic lymphatic leukaemia; MM, multiple myeloma; NHL, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma; SMR, standardised mortality ratio

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Rushton, L, Hutchings, S, Brown, T (2008). The burden of cancer at work: estimation as the first step to prevention. Occup. Environ. Med. 65: 789-800 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Wilbur, S, Wohlers, D, Paikoff, S, Keith, L., Faroon, O (2008). ATSDR evaluation of health effects of benzene and relevance to public health. Toxicol Ind Health 24: 263-398 [Abstract]  
• Steinmaus, C, Smith, A H, Jones, R M, Smith, M T (2008). Meta-analysis of benzene exposure and non-Hodgkin lymphoma: biases could mask an important association. Occup. Environ. Med. 65: 371-378 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Lichtman, M. A. (2008). Is There an Entity of Chemically Induced BCR-ABL-Positive Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia?. The Oncologist 13: 645-654 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Ahmad Khan, H. (2007). Short Review: Benzene's toxicity: a consolidated short review of human and animal studies. Hum Exp Toxicol 26: 677-685 [Abstract]