Open AccessCancer incidence among Danish stone workers.
Author(s) -
Pascal Guénel,
G Hojberg,
Elsebeth Lynge
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of work, environment and health
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.621
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1795-990X
pISSN - 0355-3140
DOI - 10.5271/sjweh.1853
Subject(s) - danish , incidence (geometry) , lung cancer , demography , cancer , medicine , cancer incidence , environmental health , oncology , mathematics , sociology , philosophy , linguistics , geometry
The lung cancer incidence of 2071 Danish stone workers was followed for a 42-year period. The expected numbers of cancer cases were based on the incidence rates for all Danish men after adjustment for region, and the data were analyzed separately for skilled and unskilled stone workers. The standardized incidence ratio (SIR) for lung cancer was 200 (44 observed, 22.0 expected) for all skilled stone workers, 808 (7 observed, 0.9 expected) for skilled sandstone cutters in Copenhagen, 119 (8 observed, 6.5 expected) for skilled granite cutters in Bornholm, 181 (24 observed, 13.2 expected) for all unskilled stone workers, 246 (17 observed, 6.9 expected) for unskilled workers in the road and building material industry, and 111 (7 observed, 6.3 expected) for unskilled workers in the stonecutting industry. Smoking was unlikely alone to explain the excess risk, and the available data on levels of exposure in the Danish stone industry point to a possible dose-response relationship between exposure to respirable silica dust and the incidence of lung cancer.