A case-control study to investigate the risk of leukaemia associated with exposure to benzene in petroleum marketing and distribution workers in the United Kingdom
A case-control study to investigate the risk of leukaemia associated with exposure to benzene in petroleum marketing and distribution workers in the United Kingdom
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DOI：
10.1136/oem.54.3.152
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发表时间：
1997-03-01
影响因子：
4.9
通讯作者：
Romaniuk, H
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Rushton, L;Romaniuk, H
Objectives-To investigate the risk of leukaemia in workers in the petroleum distribution industry who were exposed to low levels of benzene.Methods-From the cohort of distribution workers, 91 cases were identified as having leukaemia on either a death certificate or on cancer registration. These cases were compared with controls (four per case) randomly selected from the cohort, who were from the same company as the respective case, matched for age, and alive and under follow up at the time of case occurrence. Work histories were collected for the cases and controls, together with information about the terminals at which they had worked, fuel compositions, and occupational hygiene measurements of benzene. These data were used to derive quantitative estimates of personal exposure to benzene. Odds ratios (OR) were calculated conditional on the matching, to identify those variables in the study which were associated with risk of leukaemia. Examination of the potential effects of confounding and other variables was carried out with conditional logistic regression. Analyses were carried out for all leukaemia and separately for acute lymphoblastic, chronic lymphocytic, acute myeloid and monocytic, and chronic myeloid leukaemias.Results-There was no significant increase in the overall risk of all leukaemias with higher cumulative exposure to benzene or with intensity of exposure, but risk was consistently doubled in subjects employed in the industry for > 10 years. Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia tended to occur in workers employed after 1950, who started work after the age of 30, worked for a short duration, and experienced low cumulative exposure with few peaks. The ORs did not increase with increasing cumulative exposure. The risk of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia seemed to be related most closely to duration of employment and the highest risk occurred in white collar workers with long service. These workers had only background levels of benzene exposure. There was no evidence of an association of risk with any exposure variables, and no evidence of an increasing risk with increasing cumulative exposure, mean intensity, or maximum intensity of exposure. The patterns of risk for acute myeloid and monocytic leukaemia were different from those of the lymphoid subgroups, in which duration of employment was the variable most closely related to risk. Risk was increased to an OR of 2.8 (95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.8 to 9.4) for a cumulative exposure between 4.5 and 45 ppm-years compared with < 0.45 ppm-years. For mean intensity between 0.2 and 0.4 ppm an OR of 2.8 (95% CI 0.9 to 8.5) was found compared with
