Sharon R Silver1, Walter A Alarcon1, Jia Li1. 1. Division of Field Studies and Engineering, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Chronic health effects from accumulated occupational exposures manifest as the workforce ages. The Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a panel survey of U.S. adults nearing/in retirement, allows assessment of associations among industry and occupation (I/O), workplace exposures, and incident chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). METHODS: The study population comprised respondents from the 1992 HRS cohort employed in 1972 or later and not diagnosed with COPD as of initial interview. We examined associations with incident COPD through 2016 and: (1) broad and selected detailed I/O, (2) workplace exposures, and (3) exposures within I/O. Given the cohort's baseline age (50-62), we calculated subhazard ratios (SHRs) for COPD accounting for competing risk of death. RESULTS: SHRs for COPD were significantly elevated for several industries: mining; blast furnaces, steelworks, rolling and finishing mills; groceries and related products; and automotive repair shops. Occupations with significantly elevated SHRs were maids and housemen; farmworkers; vehicle/mobile equipment mechanics and repair workers; material moving equipment operators; and nonconstruction laborers. Significantly elevated COPD SHRs were observed for specific I/O-exposure pairs: blast furnace/steelworks/rolling/finishing mills and asbestos; automotive repair shops and aerosol paints; farmworkers and pesticide exposures; and both material moving equipment operators and nonconstruction laborers exposed to dust and ash. CONCLUSIONS: Certain jobs and occupational exposures are associated with increased risk for developing COPD in late preretirement and during retirement. Given the disability and economic costs of COPD, these findings support focusing exposure prevention and medical monitoring resources on groups of workers at increased risk.
BACKGROUND: Chronic health effects from accumulated occupational exposures manifest as the workforce ages. The Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a panel survey of U.S. adults nearing/in retirement, allows assessment of associations among industry and occupation (I/O), workplace exposures, and incident chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). METHODS: The study population comprised respondents from the 1992 HRS cohort employed in 1972 or later and not diagnosed with COPD as of initial interview. We examined associations with incident COPD through 2016 and: (1) broad and selected detailed I/O, (2) workplace exposures, and (3) exposures within I/O. Given the cohort's baseline age (50-62), we calculated subhazard ratios (SHRs) for COPD accounting for competing risk of death. RESULTS: SHRs for COPD were significantly elevated for several industries: mining; blast furnaces, steelworks, rolling and finishing mills; groceries and related products; and automotive repair shops. Occupations with significantly elevated SHRs were maids and housemen; farmworkers; vehicle/mobile equipment mechanics and repair workers; material moving equipment operators; and nonconstruction laborers. Significantly elevated COPD SHRs were observed for specific I/O-exposure pairs: blast furnace/steelworks/rolling/finishing mills and asbestos; automotive repair shops and aerosol paints; farmworkers and pesticide exposures; and both material moving equipment operators and nonconstruction laborers exposed to dust and ash. CONCLUSIONS: Certain jobs and occupational exposures are associated with increased risk for developing COPD in late preretirement and during retirement. Given the disability and economic costs of COPD, these findings support focusing exposure prevention and medical monitoring resources on groups of workers at increased risk.
Authors: Svein C van Oyen; Susan Peters; Helman Alfonso; Lin Fritschi; Nicholas H de Klerk; Alison Reid; Peter Franklin; Len Gordon; Geza Benke; Arthur W Musk Journal: Ann Occup Hyg Date: 2015-04-03
Authors: Ali H Mokdad; Katherine Ballestros; Michelle Echko; Scott Glenn; Helen E Olsen; Erin Mullany; Alex Lee; Abdur Rahman Khan; Alireza Ahmadi; Alize J Ferrari; Amir Kasaeian; Andrea Werdecker; Austin Carter; Ben Zipkin; Benn Sartorius; Berrin Serdar; Bryan L Sykes; Chris Troeger; Christina Fitzmaurice; Colin D Rehm; Damian Santomauro; Daniel Kim; Danny Colombara; David C Schwebel; Derrick Tsoi; Dhaval Kolte; Elaine Nsoesie; Emma Nichols; Eyal Oren; Fiona J Charlson; George C Patton; Gregory A Roth; H Dean Hosgood; Harvey A Whiteford; Hmwe Kyu; Holly E Erskine; Hsiang Huang; Ira Martopullo; Jasvinder A Singh; Jean B Nachega; Juan R Sanabria; Kaja Abbas; Kanyin Ong; Karen Tabb; Kristopher J Krohn; Leslie Cornaby; Louisa Degenhardt; Mark Moses; Maryam Farvid; Max Griswold; Michael Criqui; Michelle Bell; Minh Nguyen; Mitch Wallin; Mojde Mirarefin; Mostafa Qorbani; Mustafa Younis; Nancy Fullman; Patrick Liu; Paul Briant; Philimon Gona; Rasmus Havmoller; Ricky Leung; Ruth Kimokoti; Shahrzad Bazargan-Hejazi; Simon I Hay; Simon Yadgir; Stan Biryukov; Stein Emil Vollset; Tahiya Alam; Tahvi Frank; Talha Farid; Ted Miller; Theo Vos; Till Bärnighausen; Tsegaye Telwelde Gebrehiwot; Yuichiro Yano; Ziyad Al-Aly; Alem Mehari; Alexis Handal; Amit Kandel; Ben Anderson; Brian Biroscak; Dariush Mozaffarian; E Ray Dorsey; Eric L Ding; Eun-Kee Park; Gregory Wagner; Guoqing Hu; Honglei Chen; Jacob E Sunshine; Jagdish Khubchandani; Janet Leasher; Janni Leung; Joshua Salomon; Jurgen Unutzer; Leah Cahill; Leslie Cooper; Masako Horino; Michael Brauer; Nicholas Breitborde; Peter Hotez; Roman Topor-Madry; Samir Soneji; Saverio Stranges; Spencer James; Stephen Amrock; Sudha Jayaraman; Tejas Patel; Tomi Akinyemiju; Vegard Skirbekk; Yohannes Kinfu; Zulfiqar Bhutta; Jost B Jonas; Christopher J L Murray Journal: JAMA Date: 2018-04-10 Impact factor: 56.272