Premium
Short‐term mortality and cancer incidence in capacitor manufacturing workers exposed to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBS)
Author(s) -
Gustavsson Per,
Hogstedt Christer,
Rappe Christoffer
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
american journal of industrial medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.7
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1097-0274
pISSN - 0271-3586
DOI - 10.1002/ajim.4700100402
Subject(s) - medicine , cohort , incidence (geometry) , standardized mortality ratio , cancer , cancer incidence , cohort study , carcinogen , environmental health , toxicology , demography , physics , biology , optics , genetics , sociology
A cohort study of 142 male Swedish capacitor manufacturing workers was performed. PCB had been used as a dielectricum in power capacitors between 1960 and 1978. Mortality was investigated for the period 1965 to 1982 and cancer incidence from 1965 to 1980. Twenty‐one deaths and seven cancers were observed, which was in agreement with the anticipated numbers calculated from national statistics. One person had developed two rare tumors, a slow growing mesenchymal tumor (desmoid) and a malignant lymphoma. The results cannot rule out the possibility of a carcinogenic risk from PCB exposure because of the small size of the cohort and relatively brief follow‐up period, but they do not indicate any excess mortality or cancer incidence in this factory so far.