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Occupational risks and lung cancer burden for Chinese men: a population-based case–referent study

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Abstract

Objective

We aimed to fill in the gap of knowledge on the lung cancer burden resulting from occupational exposures among Chinese men through a population-based case–referent study.

Methods

Detailed information on lifestyle and full occupational histories of 1,208 male lung cancer incident cases and 1,069 age-matched male community referents were obtained through interviews during 2004–2006. The associations between lung cancer risk and exposures to specific or group of agents that were confirmed or suspected occupational carcinogens were analyzed.

Results

After adjustment of smoking and other potential confounding factors, significant odds ratio of lung cancer was observed for workers employed in major industrial divisions of “construction” (1.37, 95% CI: 1.00–1.89) and “financing, insurance, real estate, and business services” (0.48, 95% CI: 0.23–0.97), as well as in the occupational groups of “bricklayers, carpenters, and other construction workers” (1.49, 95% CI: 1.07–2.06). Significantly elevated odds ratios were found for occupational exposures to silica dust (1.75, 95% CI: 1.16–2.62), welding fumes (1.74, 95% CI: 1.13–2.68), diesel exhaust (2.18, 95% CI: 1.23–3.84), and man-made mineral fibers (7.45, 95% CI: 1.63–34.00), while a significantly reduced risk (OR = 0.67, 95% CI: 0.47–0.95) was linked to cotton dust. The population attributable fraction of lung cancer was 3.2% (95% CI: 0.1–7.3%) for construction workers and 9.5% (95% CI: 4.8–15.1%) for the four significant specific exposures.

Conclusions

Our study indicates that previous exposure to occupational carcinogens remains an important determinant of lung cancer burden for Hong Kong Chinese men. However, results obtained from this study should be confirmed by future analyses based on job exposure matrix.

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Abbreviations

ETS:

Environmental tobacco smoke

ISCO:

International Standard Classification of Occupations

ISIC:

International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities

MMMF:

Man-made mineral fibers

OR:

Odds ratio

95% CI:

95% Confidence interval

PAF:

Population attributable fraction

IARC:

International Agency for Research on Cancer

SMR:

Standardized mortality ratio

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Acknowledgments

The work described in this paper was substantially supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China; Project No. CUHK4460/03M. The funding source had no role in the study design, data collection, data analysis, or interpretation of the findings.

Conflict of interest

The authors declared no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, 4/F School of Public Health, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong, SAR, China

    Lap Ah Tse, Ignatius Tak-sun Yu, Hong Qiu & Xiao-rong Wang

  2. Department of Clinical Oncology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kowloon, HKSAR, China

    Joseph Siu Kai Au

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  1. Lap Ah Tse
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  2. Ignatius Tak-sun Yu
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  3. Hong Qiu
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  4. Joseph Siu Kai Au
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Correspondence to Ignatius Tak-sun Yu.

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Tse, L.A., Yu, I.Ts., Qiu, H. et al. Occupational risks and lung cancer burden for Chinese men: a population-based case–referent study. Cancer Causes Control 23, 121–131 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-011-9861-1

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