TY - JOUR T1 - Occupational risk factors for pancreatic cancer among female textile workers in Shanghai, China JF - Occupational and Environmental Medicine JO - Occup Environ Med SP - 788 LP - 793 DO - 10.1136/oem.2005.026229 VL - 63 IS - 12 AU - W Li AU - R M Ray AU - D L Gao AU - E D Fitzgibbons AU - N S Seixas AU - J E Camp AU - K J Wernli AU - G Astrakianakis AU - Z Feng AU - D B Thomas AU - H Checkoway Y1 - 2006/12/01 UR - http://oem.bmj.com/content/63/12/788.abstract N2 - Objectives To investigate whether occupational exposures to dusts and chemicals in the Shanghai textile industry are associated with risk of pancreatic cancer. Methods A case cohort study nested in a cohort of 267 400 female textile workers in Shanghai, China was conducted among 180 incident pancreatic cancer cases and an age stratified randomly selected comparison subcohort (nā€Š=ā€Š3188). A complete occupational history of work in the textile industry was obtained for each woman, and was linked to a job exposure matrix developed for the textile industry to estimate exposures to specific dusts and chemicals. Cumulative exposures to cotton dust and endotoxin were reconstructed from historical and contemporaneous measurements. Results After adjusting for smoking status, a trend of decreasing risk of pancreatic cancer was observed for increasing cumulative exposures to cotton dust and endotoxin with a lag of 20 years. The hazard ratios for women cumulatively exposed to >143.4 mg/m3Ɨ years of cotton dust and >3530.6 EU/m3Ɨ years of endotoxin were 0.6 (95% CI 0.3 to 0.9) and 0.5 (95% CI 0.3 to 0.9), respectively, compared to unexposed women. There was little evidence that exposures to other textile dusts and chemicals were associated with risk of pancreatic cancer. Conclusions Occupational exposure to cotton dust and endotoxin in the textile industry may have reduced risks of pancreatic cancer in this cohort. These associations should be replicated by others before making a firm conclusion of their possible effects on pancreatic cancer. ER -