Lung cancer risk among firefighters when accounting for tobacco smoking - Preliminary results from a pooled analysis of casecontrol studies from Europe, Canada, New Zealand and China

Carolina Bigert, Per Gustavsson, Kurt Straif, Dirk Taeger, Beate Pesch, Benjamin Kendzia, Joachim Schüz, Isabelle Stücker, Florence Guida, Irene Brüske, Heinz-Erich Wichmann, Angela C. Pesatori, Maria Teresa Landi, Neil Caporaso, Lap Ah Tse, Ignatius Tak-Zsun Yu, Jack Siemiatycki, Jérôme Lavoué, Lorenzo Richardi, Dario MirabelliLorenzo Simonato, Karl-Heinz Jöckel, Wolfgang Ahrens, Hermann Pohlabeln, Adonina Tardón, David Zaridze, John K. Field, Andrea'T Mannetje, Neil Pearce, John McLaughlin, Paul Demers, Neonila Szeszenia-Dabrowska, Jolanta Lissowska, Peter Rudnai, Eleonora Fabianova, Rodica Stanescu Dumitru, Vladimir Bencko, Lenka Foretova, Vladimir Janout, Paolo Boffetta, Susan Peters, Roel Vermeulen, Hans Kromhout, Thomas Brüning, Ann C. Olsson

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

    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.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)127
    Number of pages1
    JournalOccupational and Environmental Medicine
    Volume73
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2016

    Keywords

    • carcinogen
    • Canada
    • cancer risk
    • China
    • confidence interval
    • controlled study
    • employment
    • Europe
    • fire fighter
    • human
    • logistic regression analysis
    • lung cancer
    • male
    • meta analysis
    • New Zealand
    • occupational exposure
    • odds ratio
    • population based case control study
    • smoking habit

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