Occupation and bladder cancer in males: a case-control study.

A case-control study of 512 male cases of bladder cancer and 596 male hospital controls (all living in the province of Turin, Northern Italy, an area with a high proportion of car workers) has been analyzed for occupations. Relative risks were 1.8 (95% c.l. 0.9-3.6) for the textile industry, 3.8 (1.3-11.5) for the leather industry, 1.8 (0.8-4.0) for printing, 8.8 (2.7-28.6) for dyestuff production, 1.2 (0.6-2.4) for tire production and 2.5 (1.0-6.0) for other rubber goods, 2.0 (0.9-4.5) for brickyards and related activities. A relative risk of 3.1 (0.9-10.5) was found for turners having started work before 1940 and with at least 10 years of activity. For truck drivers the relative risk was 1.2 (0.6-2.5). A job-exposure matrix was developed for the development of new hypotheses; an association with bladder cancer was found for aromatic amines only. The attributable risk percent in the population was estimated as 10%, when only those occupations consistently associated with bladder cancer were considered.