Girardi P, Bressan V, Mabilia T, Merler E.

Epidemiol Prev. 2015;39(3):183-7.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
To extend up to year 2013 the follow-up for mortality of a cohort of workers in a chromium and nickel plating plant, where an excess of lung cancers was already identified.

DESIGN
10 years after the first study about cancer mortality in a cohort of workers involved in the chromium thin-layer plating, published in 2006, we updated the evaluation of themortality of a cohort ofworkers employed in the same chromiumthin-layer plating factory with at least 6 months of work between 1968 and 1994.The mortality rates are compared with those of the Italian and Veneto Region (Northern Italy) populations.The dose-response relationship between work duration and lung cancer is assessed by adjusted Poisson regression.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS
127 unskilled or skilled workers involved in the production process.

RESULTS
In the updated follow-up, 35 deaths occurred among the subjects under study: 19 for cancer (of which 11 for lung cancer and 3 for pancreatic cancer). A marked excess ofmortality due to lung cancer is observed. In addition, the newfollowup shows a significant excess of pancreatic cancer mortality. Lung cancer mortality is positively associated with work duration and the risk increases by 13%(95%CI 1-26) for each additional year of work.

CONCLUSIONS
The extension of followup confirms that this cohort expresses an increased mortality from cancer deaths, due to a marked excess of lung and pancreatic cancers. The effect of smoking has only a secondary effect in the cancer onset expressed by this cohort. The risk of lung cancer increased with work duration and thus with occupational exposure to chromium and nickel.

Pubmed: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26668918