Exposure-response relation for occupational exposure to respirable quartz and lung cancer risk: performance of a quantitative vs a semi-quantitative job-exposure matrix
Year: 2011
Type: conference-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.
Authors: S. Peters, R. Vermeulen, L. Portengen, A. Olsson, H.-E. Wichmann, I. Bruske, D. Consonni, A. Cattaneo, P. A. Bertazzi, J. Siemiatycki, L. Richiardi, D. Mirabelli, L. Simonato, P. Gustavsson, K.-H. Jockel, W. Ahrens, H. Pohlabeln, P. Boffetta, P. Brennan, F. Forastiere, I. Stucker, S. Benhamou, B. Bueno-de-Mesquita, N. Plato, J. Lavoue, D. Dahmann, J. Fevotte, B. Kendzia, R. Vincent, B. Savary, D. Cavallo, B. Pesch, T. Bruning, K. Straif, H. Kromhout
Institutions: Centre international de recherche sur le cancer, University of Milan, Université de Montréal, University of Turin, University of Padua, Karolinska Institutet, University of Duisburg-Essen, Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology - BIPS, Tisch Cancer Institute, Inserm, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine, Institut National de Recherche et de Sécurité, University of Insubria
Language: English
Subfield: Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2335736424