EDITORIAL

Epidemiology

Smoothing is soothing, and splines are fine

K Steenland

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr K Steenland
Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health, 1518 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA; nsteenl@sph.emory.edu

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Commentary on the paper by Eisen et al (Occup Environ Med, October 2004)^*

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Keywords: splines; smoothing

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Eisen and colleagues have provided a good example of the use of smoothing splines in a thorough analysis of exposure-response data, for a study of lung cancer in relation to silica exposure.¹ Exposure-response data are increasingly important for two reasons.

First, as noted by Bradford Hill, a positive exposure-response provides support for a causal interpretation of an association. In the case of silica and lung cancer, evidence of a positive-exposure response in several studies has provided important support for the original 1997 IARC judgement that silica is a class I (definitive) carcinogen. That judgement has remained controversial because in some studies the exposed population has not had a higher lung cancer rate than the non-exposed comparison group. Some have argued that this may be because the surface properties of silica change in different settings and may have different toxicities, so that in some cases silica may not increase lung . . . [Full text of this article]

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This article has been cited by other articles:

• Friesen, M. C., Costello, S., Eisen, E. A. (2009). Quantitative Exposure to Metalworking Fluids and Bladder Cancer Incidence in a Cohort of Autoworkers. Am J Epidemiol 169: 1471-1478 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Tse, L A, Yu, I T S, Leung, C C, Tam, W, Wong, T W (2007). Mortality from non-malignant respiratory diseases among people with silicosis in Hong Kong: exposure-response analyses for exposure to silica dust. Occup. Environ. Med. 64: 87-92 [Abstract] [Full Text]