Exposure-response relation for occupational exposure to respirable quartz and lung cancer risk: performance of a quantitative vs a semi-quantitative job-exposure matrix. (19th October 2011)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Peters, Susan; Vermeulen, Roel; Portengen, Lutzen; Olsson, Ann; Wichmann, Heinz-Erich; Brüske, Irene; Consonni, Dario; Cattaneo, Andrea; Bertazzi, Pier Alberto; Siemiatycki, Jack; Richiardi, Lorenzo; Mirabelli, Dario; Simonato, Lorenzo; Gustavsson, Per; Jöckel, Karl-Heinz; Ahrens, Wolfgang; Pohlabeln, Hermann; Boffetta, Paolo; Brennan, Paul; Forastiere, Francesco; Stücker, Isabelle; Benhamou, Simone; Bueno-de-Mesquita, Bas; Plato, Nils; Lavoué, Jérôme; Dahmann, Dirk; Fevotte, Joelle; Kendzia, Benjamin; Vincent, Raymond; Savary, Barbara; Cavallo, Domenico; Pesch, Beate; Brüning, Thomas; Straif, Kurt; Kromhout, Hans;
• Is Part Of: Occupational and environmental medicine. Volume 68(2011)Supplement 1
• Page Start: A48
• Page End: A48
• Publication Date: 2011-10-19
• Subjects: Medicine, Industrial -- Periodicals; Environmental health -- Periodicals; 616.980305
• DOI: 10.1136/oemed-2011-100382.154
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1351-0711

Abstract

Abstract : Objectives: In order to estimate the exposure-response relation of respirable quartz and lung cancer risk, we developed a quantitative time/job/region specific job-exposure matrix (JEM) based on statistical modelling of historical exposure data. We compared the performance of this quantitative JEM (SYN-JEM) with an already available semi-quantitative general population JEM (DOM-JEM) within a study of pooled community-based lung cancer case-control studies (SYNERGY). Methods: Detailed lifetime occupational and smoking history was available for 13 259 cases and 16 232 controls from 11 case-control studies from 12 European countries and Canada. Occupational histories were linked with SYN-JEM and DOM-JEM to derive estimates of cumulative exposure. ORs for lung cancer were estimated using unconditional logistic regression adjusted for age, gender, study, cigarette pack-years, time-since-quitting smoking, and ever occupational exposure to five other known lung carcinogens. Results: Exposure to respirable quartz was associated with a monotonic increase in risk of lung cancer. Cumulative exposure estimates based on the quantitative SYN-JEM ranged from 0.005 to 104 mg/m3-years. Quartiles of cumulative exposure (categorised using the exposure distribution among exposed controls) showed significant elevated risks ranging from 1.16 to 1.40. SYN-JEM did not perform better than the ordinal DOM-JEM which provided similar ORs. Conclusions: We found a positive exposure-response association between occupational exposure to respirable quartz and lung cancer in a large pooled community-based case-control study. A semi-quantitative approach showed similar results as the quantitative exposure assessment approach except that with the latter risk can be expressed in terms of mg/m3 quartz years, which would facilitate quantitative risk-assessment.