Cancer site | ||||||||||||||||
Bladder | Leukaemia | Lung | Mesothelioma | NMSC | Sinonasal | Total | ||||||||||
Exposure‡ | Reference (numbers 16–62 in the reference list)§ | Type of study | M | F | M | F | M | F | M | F | M | F | M | F | M | F |
Aromatic amines | Sorahan et al (1998)17 | West Midlands hospital-based case-control study | 22†††,§§§ | 10†††,§§§ | 22 | 10 | ||||||||||
Arsenic | Lee-Feldstein (1986)18 | US copper smelter cohort | 95 | 21 | 95 | 21 | ||||||||||
Asbestos | Darnton et al (2006)16¶ | Ratio of lung cancer to mesothelioma deaths in asbestos-exposed jobs | 1650 | 270 | 1650 | 270 | 3300 | 540 | ||||||||
Darnton (personal communication)¶¶ | Proportion of mesotheliomas judged due to occupational asbestos exposure | |||||||||||||||
Benzene | Collins et al (2004)19 | Industry cohort study | 2††† | 4††† | 2 | 4 | ||||||||||
Lewis et al (2000)20 | Industry cohort study | |||||||||||||||
Bloemen (2004)21 | Industry cohort study | |||||||||||||||
Beryllium | Ward et al (1992)22 | US industry cohort | 5‡‡‡ | 2‡‡‡ | 5 | 2 | ||||||||||
Cadmium | Verougstraete et al (2003)23 | Review of industry studies | 13‡‡‡ | 5‡‡‡ | 13 | 5 | ||||||||||
Chromium | Cole & Rodu (2005)24¶ | Meta-analysis | 56‡‡‡ | 18‡‡‡ | 1‡‡‡ | 0‡‡‡ | 57 | 19 | ||||||||
Rosenbaum & Stanbury (1996)25†† | US industry cohort | |||||||||||||||
Cobalt†††† | Moulin et al (1998)26 | French industry cohort | 88 | 27 | 88 | 27 | ||||||||||
Diesel engine exhaust | Lipsett & Campleman (1999)27¶ | Meta-analysis | 47§§§ | 3§§§ | 566 | 60 | 613 | 63 | ||||||||
Coggon et al (1984)28¶ | Case-control death certificate study | |||||||||||||||
Boffetta & Silverman (2001)29** | Meta-analysis of industry cohorts¶¶¶ | |||||||||||||||
Dioxins | Kogevinas et al (1997)30 | IARC multi-national cohort¶¶¶ | 109 | 11 | 109 | 11 | ||||||||||
Electromagnetic fields†††† | Kheifets et al (1997)31 | Meta-analysis | 35 | 1 | 35 | 1 | ||||||||||
Environmental tobacco smoke for non-smokers | Zhong et al. (2000)32 | Meta-analysis | 144 | 110 | 144 | 110 | ||||||||||
Ethylene oxide | Coggon et al (2003)33 | Industry cohort study | 0†††,‡‡‡ | 0†††,‡‡‡ | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
Teta et al (1999)34 | Meta-analysis | |||||||||||||||
Formaldehyde | Mannetje et al (1999)35†† | Pool of population-based case-control studies | 4***,‡‡‡ | 2***,‡‡‡ | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | ||||||||
Coggon et al (2003)36†† | UK industry cohort | |||||||||||||||
Collins & Lineker (2004)19§§ | Meta-analysis of industry cohorts | |||||||||||||||
Hairdressers and barbers (occupation) | Czene et al (2003)37 | Swedish cohort study | 3§§§ | 4§§§ | 3 | 4 | ||||||||||
Ionising radiation | Blettner et al (2003)38 | Multi-national occupation group cohort | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
Lead | Steenland & Boffetta (2000)39 | Meta-analysis | 38‡‡‡ | 7‡‡‡ | 38 | 7 | ||||||||||
Leather dust§§§§ | Fu et al (1996)40 | English shoe-manufacturing workers cohort | 5 | 6 | 5 | 6 | ||||||||||
Mineral oils (metalworkers) | Tolbert (1997)41** | Review¶¶¶ | 243‡‡‡ | 13‡‡‡ | 17‡‡‡ | 1‡‡‡ | 20‡‡‡ | 2‡‡‡ | 279 | 16 | ||||||
Eisen et al (2001)42‡‡ | US automobile industry cohort | |||||||||||||||
Roush et al (1980)43†† | US case-control study | |||||||||||||||
Mineral oils (printers) | Leon et al (1994)44 | Industry cohorts¶¶¶ | 195 | 40 | 195 | 40 | ||||||||||
Nickel | Sorohan & Williams (2005)45¶ | Clydach refinery cohort | 6***,‡‡‡ | 2‡‡‡ | 3***,‡‡‡ | 1‡‡‡ | 8 | 3 | ||||||||
Seilkop & Oller (2003)46¶ | Review of industry studies | |||||||||||||||
Grimsrud & Peto (2006)47†† | Clydach refinery cohort | |||||||||||||||
Non-arsenical pesticides | Acquavella (1998)48 | Meta-analysis of industry cohorts | 15 | 3 | 15 | 3 | ||||||||||
Painters (occupation) | Chen & Seaton (1998)49¶ | Meta-analysis of cohort studies | 32 | 2 | 244 | 17 | 277 | 19 | ||||||||
Bosetti et al (2005)50** | Quantitative review of industry-based studies | |||||||||||||||
PAHs (general) | Armstrong et al (2004)51¶ | Meta-analysis of industry cohorts**** | 18‡‡‡ | 0‡‡‡ | 6 | 0 | 23 | 0 | ||||||||
Unwin et al (2006)52¶ | Narrative review of industry cohorts¶¶¶ | |||||||||||||||
Boffetta et al (1997)53** | ||||||||||||||||
PAHs (coal tars and pitches) | Partanen & Boffetta (1994)54 | Meta-analysis of cohort studies in asphalt workers | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0 | ||||||||||
Radon | NRPB (2000)55 | Attributable domestic death rates applied to employees time at work | 185 | 185 | 185 | 185 | ||||||||||
Silica | Kurihara & Wada (2004)56 | Meta-analysis | 797 | 53 | 797 | 53 | ||||||||||
Steenland et al (2001)57 | Cohort pool | |||||||||||||||
Solar radiation | Freedman et al (2002)58 | US death certificate-based case-control study | 17††† | 5††† | 17 | 5 | ||||||||||
Steel foundry workers | Sorahan et al. (1994)59 | UK industry cohort | 25 | 1 | 25 | 1 | ||||||||||
Textile dust†††† | Luce et al (2002)60 | Pool of population-/hospital-based case-control studies¶¶¶ | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||||
Welders (occupation)†††† | Ambroise et al (2006)61 | Meta-analysis | 139 | 13 | 139 | 13 | ||||||||||
Wood dust | Demers et al (1995)62 | Pool of population-based case-control studies | 21*** | 0*** | 21 | 0 | ||||||||||
Established exposures only† | 40 | 10 | 4 | 5 | 3137 | 599 | 1450 | 75 | 38 | 6 | 24 | 6 | 4692 | 701 | ||
Established plus uncertain exposures† | 362 | 32 | 58 | 11 | 4106 | 728 | 1650 | 270 | 38 | 6 | 45 | 11 | 6259 | 1058 |
*Totals do not always sum across rows due to rounding error.
†Numbers for the separate exposures do not sum to the combined exposure totals due to allowance made for overlapping exposures.
‡Estimates have not been made for some IARC Group 1 and 2A carcinogens. Reasons include: relevant exposures had ceased in GB by 1950 (rubber industry/for bladder cancer); very small or unknown numbers of workers exposed (BCME and CME, αCT&BC, epichlorohydrin, haematite mining, 1,3-butadiene,ethylene oxide in men); no relative risk (RR) estimates were available (4,4′methyl bis(2-chloroaniline) and styrene-7,8-oxide for bladder cancer, benzo[a]pyrene, benzo[a]anthracene & dibenz[a,h]anthracene for NMSC, isopropanol manufacture, strong acid process for sinonasal cancer); workers were also exposed to another dominant carcinogen (boot and shoe manufacture and repair included under benzene for leukaemia, and under exposure to aromatic amines before 1962 for bladder cancer, rubber industry exposure included under exposure to chromium, cadmium, silica and PAHs for lung cancer).
§Where two references are given, the first was used for a “higher” exposure risk estimate and the second for a “lower/background” exposure risk estimate, unless otherwise stated.
¶Lung cancer.
**Bladder cancer.
††Sinonasal cancer.
‡‡Non-melanoma skin cancer.
§§Leukaemia.
¶¶Mesothelioma.
***Based on three exposure levels.
†††Based on separate exposure scenario categories.
‡‡‡RR for background exposure level was set to 1, giving AF = 0.
§§§RRs from incidence studies used. For all other estimates RRs from mortality studies or meta-analyses combining mortality and incidence studies were used.
¶¶¶Inverse variance weighted average RR estimated by study team using RRs given in the reference.
****A unit relative risk estimate was used to derive exposure level-specific RRs.
††††Exposure classified as IARC 2B; included in the “uncertain” group. For cobalt, estimated lung cancer deaths were based on total numbers exposed to cobalt, with or without exposure to tungsten carbide. Cobalt with tungsten carbide is classified as IARC 2A.
‡‡‡‡Low exposed RR estimated by the study team as 1+(RRhigh-1)/2.
§§§§Boot and shoe manufacture and repair.
αCT&BC, α-chlorinated toluenes & benzoyl chloride; BCME, bis(chloromethyl)ether; CMF, chloromethyl methyl ether; IARC, International Agency for Research on Cancer; NMSC, non-melanoma skin cancer; PAH, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon; RR, relative risk.