BACKGROUND: Exposures in nickel refineries represent complex chemical mixtures, but only the effect of nickel has been evaluated quantitatively in epidemiologic studies of nickel workers. METHODS: For a Norwegian refinery, time- and department-specific exposure estimates were developed for arsenic, sulfuric acid mists, and cobalt in air on the basis of personal measurements and chemical data on raw materials and process intermediates. Exposure to asbestos, as well as employment in high-risk occupations outside the refinery, were assessed. We conducted a case-control study nested in a cohort of refinery workers, with 213 cases (diagnosed 1952-1995) and 525 age-matched controls. We analyzed lung cancer risk, adjusted for smoking, by cumulative exposure and duration of work. RESULTS: There was a substantial association between cumulative exposure to water-soluble nickel and lung cancer risk. Weaker effects were suggested for exposure to arsenic at the refinery and for occupational exposures outside the refinery for 15 years or more. No detectable excess risk was found for refinery exposure to asbestos or sulfuric acid mists, and no dose-related increase in risk was seen from cobalt. CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to water-soluble nickel remained the most likely explanation for the excess lung cancer risk in the cohort. Other occupational exposures did not confound the strong dose-related effect of nickel to any appreciable degree.
BACKGROUND: Exposures in nickel refineries represent complex chemical mixtures, but only the effect of nickel has been evaluated quantitatively in epidemiologic studies of nickel workers. METHODS: For a Norwegian refinery, time- and department-specific exposure estimates were developed for arsenic, sulfuric acid mists, and cobalt in air on the basis of personal measurements and chemical data on raw materials and process intermediates. Exposure to asbestos, as well as employment in high-risk occupations outside the refinery, were assessed. We conducted a case-control study nested in a cohort of refinery workers, with 213 cases (diagnosed 1952-1995) and 525 age-matched controls. We analyzed lung cancer risk, adjusted for smoking, by cumulative exposure and duration of work. RESULTS: There was a substantial association between cumulative exposure to water-soluble nickel and lung cancer risk. Weaker effects were suggested for exposure to arsenic at the refinery and for occupational exposures outside the refinery for 15 years or more. No detectable excess risk was found for refinery exposure to asbestos or sulfuric acid mists, and no dose-related increase in risk was seen from cobalt. CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to water-soluble nickel remained the most likely explanation for the excess lung cancer risk in the cohort. Other occupational exposures did not confound the strong dose-related effect of nickel to any appreciable degree.
Authors: Stephen S Lim; Theo Vos; Abraham D Flaxman; Goodarz Danaei; Kenji Shibuya; Heather Adair-Rohani; Markus Amann; H Ross Anderson; Kathryn G Andrews; Martin Aryee; Charles Atkinson; Loraine J Bacchus; Adil N Bahalim; Kalpana Balakrishnan; John Balmes; Suzanne Barker-Collo; Amanda Baxter; Michelle L Bell; Jed D Blore; Fiona Blyth; Carissa Bonner; Guilherme Borges; Rupert Bourne; Michel Boussinesq; Michael Brauer; Peter Brooks; Nigel G Bruce; Bert Brunekreef; Claire Bryan-Hancock; Chiara Bucello; Rachelle Buchbinder; Fiona Bull; Richard T Burnett; Tim E Byers; Bianca Calabria; Jonathan Carapetis; Emily Carnahan; Zoe Chafe; Fiona Charlson; Honglei Chen; Jian Shen Chen; Andrew Tai-Ann Cheng; Jennifer Christine Child; Aaron Cohen; K Ellicott Colson; Benjamin C Cowie; Sarah Darby; Susan Darling; Adrian Davis; Louisa Degenhardt; Frank Dentener; Don C Des Jarlais; Karen Devries; Mukesh Dherani; Eric L Ding; E Ray Dorsey; Tim Driscoll; Karen Edmond; Suad Eltahir Ali; Rebecca E Engell; Patricia J Erwin; Saman Fahimi; Gail Falder; Farshad Farzadfar; Alize Ferrari; Mariel M Finucane; Seth Flaxman; Francis Gerry R Fowkes; Greg Freedman; Michael K Freeman; Emmanuela Gakidou; Santu Ghosh; Edward Giovannucci; Gerhard Gmel; Kathryn Graham; Rebecca Grainger; Bridget Grant; David Gunnell; Hialy R Gutierrez; Wayne Hall; Hans W Hoek; Anthony Hogan; H Dean Hosgood; Damian Hoy; Howard Hu; Bryan J Hubbell; Sally J Hutchings; Sydney E Ibeanusi; Gemma L Jacklyn; Rashmi Jasrasaria; Jost B Jonas; Haidong Kan; John A Kanis; Nicholas Kassebaum; Norito Kawakami; Young-Ho Khang; Shahab Khatibzadeh; Jon-Paul Khoo; Cindy Kok; Francine Laden; Ratilal Lalloo; Qing Lan; Tim Lathlean; Janet L Leasher; James Leigh; Yang Li; John Kent Lin; Steven E Lipshultz; Stephanie London; Rafael Lozano; Yuan Lu; Joelle Mak; Reza Malekzadeh; Leslie Mallinger; Wagner Marcenes; Lyn March; Robin Marks; Randall Martin; Paul McGale; John McGrath; Sumi Mehta; George A Mensah; Tony R Merriman; Renata Micha; Catherine Michaud; Vinod Mishra; Khayriyyah Mohd Hanafiah; Ali A Mokdad; Lidia Morawska; Dariush Mozaffarian; Tasha Murphy; Mohsen Naghavi; Bruce Neal; Paul K Nelson; Joan Miquel Nolla; Rosana Norman; Casey Olives; Saad B Omer; Jessica Orchard; Richard Osborne; Bart Ostro; Andrew Page; Kiran D Pandey; Charles D H Parry; Erin Passmore; Jayadeep Patra; Neil Pearce; Pamela M Pelizzari; Max Petzold; Michael R Phillips; Dan Pope; C Arden Pope; John Powles; Mayuree Rao; Homie Razavi; Eva A Rehfuess; Jürgen T Rehm; Beate Ritz; Frederick P Rivara; Thomas Roberts; Carolyn Robinson; Jose A Rodriguez-Portales; Isabelle Romieu; Robin Room; Lisa C Rosenfeld; Ananya Roy; Lesley Rushton; Joshua A Salomon; Uchechukwu Sampson; Lidia Sanchez-Riera; Ella Sanman; Amir Sapkota; Soraya Seedat; Peilin Shi; Kevin Shield; Rupak Shivakoti; Gitanjali M Singh; David A Sleet; Emma Smith; Kirk R Smith; Nicolas J C Stapelberg; Kyle Steenland; Heidi Stöckl; Lars Jacob Stovner; Kurt Straif; Lahn Straney; George D Thurston; Jimmy H Tran; Rita Van Dingenen; Aaron van Donkelaar; J Lennert Veerman; Lakshmi Vijayakumar; Robert Weintraub; Myrna M Weissman; Richard A White; Harvey Whiteford; Steven T Wiersma; James D Wilkinson; Hywel C Williams; Warwick Williams; Nicholas Wilson; Anthony D Woolf; Paul Yip; Jan M Zielinski; Alan D Lopez; Christopher J L Murray; Majid Ezzati; Mohammad A AlMazroa; Ziad A Memish Journal: Lancet Date: 2012-12-15 Impact factor: 79.321
Authors: Wen Liu-Mares; Jill A Mackinnon; Recinda Sherman; Lora E Fleming; Caio Rocha-Lima; Jennifer J Hu; David J Lee Journal: BMC Cancer Date: 2013-03-12 Impact factor: 4.430