P025 Lung cancer risk among firefighters when accounting for tobacco smoking – preliminary results from a pooled analysis of case-control studies from europe, canada, new zealand and china. (1st September 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bigert, Carolina; Gustavsson, Per; Straif, Kurt; Taeger, Dirk; Pesch, Beate; Kendzia, Benjamin; Schüz, Joachim; Stücker, Isabelle; Guida, Florence; Brüske, Irene; Wichmann, Heinz-Erich; Pesatori, Angela C; Landi, Maria Teresa; Caporaso, Neil; Tse, Lap Ah; Yu, Ignatius Tak-sun; Siemiatycki, Jack; Lavoué, Jérôme; Richardi, Lorenzo; Mirabelli, Dario; Simonato, Lorenzo; Jöckel, Karl-Heinz; Ahrens, Wolfgang; Pohlabeln, Hermann; Tardón, Adonina; Zaridze, David; Field, John K; Mannetje, Andrea't; Pearce, Neil; McLaughlin, John; Demers, Paul; Szeszenia-Dabrowska, Neonila; Lissowska, Jolanta; Rudnai, Peter; Fabianova, Eleonora; Dumitru, Rodica Stanescu; Bencko, Vladimir; Foretova, Lenka; Janout, Vladimir; Boffetta, Paolo; Peters, Susan; Vermeulen, Roel; Kromhout, Hans; Brüning, Thomas; Olsson, Ann C;
• Is Part Of: Occupational and environmental medicine. Volume 73(2016)Supplement 1
• Page Start: A128
• Page End: A128
• Publication Date: 2016-09-01
• Subjects: Medicine, Industrial -- Periodicals; Environmental health -- Periodicals; 616.980305
• DOI: 10.1136/oemed-2016-103951.350
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1351-0711

Abstract

Abstract : Objectives: Firefighters are potentially exposed to a wide variety of chemical compounds during the course of their work and inhalation is considered to be the major source of exposure. A large number of human carcinogens have been detected in smoke at fires. The aim was to investigate the risk of lung cancer among firefighters, while controlling for smoking habits. Methods: We used data from the SYNERGY project including pooled information on lifetime work histories and smoking habits for 14, 748 male lung cancer cases and 17, 543 controls from 14 case-control studies conducted in Europe, Canada, New Zealand and China. There were 190 men who had ever worked as a firefighter (based on ISCO-68), among them 86 cases and 104 controls. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated by unconditional logistic regression, adjusted for study, age, smoking, and ever employment in an occupation with established lung cancer risk. Results: We observed no increased risk of lung cancer in firefighters, neither before (OR = 1.03, 95% CI: 0.77–1.38) nor after (OR = 0.95, 95% CI: 0.68–1.32) adjustment for smoking and exposure to other occupational lung carcinogens. There was no evidence of a trend of increasing lung cancer risk with increasing duration of work as a firefighter (p = 0.58) and no significant heterogeneity in lung cancer risk among firefighters across the studies. None of the major histological subtypes of lung cancer was associated with work as a firefighter. Conclusions: We found no evidence of an excess lung cancer risk related to occupational exposure as a firefighter, when lifetime history of tobacco smoking and exposure to other occupational lung carcinogens was taken into account.