Lung cancer risk in workers in the meat and poultry industries--a review

Details

• Personal Author:
  Choi KM ; Johnson ES
• Description:
  Laboratory and in vivo studies in primates, and serological evidence in humans, indicate that food animal oncogenic viruses show potential for causing cancer in humans. However, until fairly recently, supporting analytic epidemiologic studies have been lacking and have concentrated on lung cancer. We conducted an extensive Medline search and reviewed 60 studies investigating lung cancer risk in highly exposed workers in the meat and poultry industries. The overwhelming majority of studies of different designs (including all the cohort mortality and cancer incidence studies) indicate at least a 30% excess risk of lung cancer in meat and poultry plant workers, even after controlling for smoking. Evidence points to food animal oncogenic microorganisms as one of the main causes. This has important public health implications because the general population is also widely exposed. Studies carried out thus far have not had sufficient statistical power to investigate other potentially carcinogenic exposures within the industries. Thus, large studies that can adequately control for occupational and non-occupational confounding factors are needed, so that the possible role of food animal oncogenic viruses in the occurrence of human lung cancer can be clearly defined. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Animals Carcinogens Communicable Diseases Epidemiology Food-Processing Industry Food Handling Food Industry Livestock Lung Lung Diseases Microbiology Neoplasms Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Public Health Respiratory System Respiratory Tract Diseases Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Viral Diseases

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• Keywords:
  Animal-products Animal-products-workers Author Keywords: Oncogenic Viruses Cancer Cancer-rates Chickens Curing Meat Disease-transmission Employee-exposure Etiology Food-handlers Food-processing Food-processing-industry Food-processing-workers Frying Meat Humans In-vivo-studies Infectious-diseases Live Animal Lung-cancer Meat Meat-handlers Meat-packing-industry Microorganisms Oncogenic-agents Poultry Poultry-industry Poultry-workers Public-health Pulmonary-system-disorders Respiratory-system-disorders Risk-analysis Risk-factors Serology Slaughter Slaughterhouses Smoking Meat Veterinary-medicine Viral-diseases Zoonoses

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• ISSN:
  1863-1959
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Arkansas ; OSHA Region 6 ; Texas
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  303-313
• Volume:
  59
• Issue:
  5
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20041495
• Citation:
  Zoonoses Public Health 2012 Aug; 59(5):303-313
• Contact Point Address:
  E. S. Johnson, Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, 4301 W. Markham St, Little Rock, AR 72207, USA
• Email:
  esjohnson@uams.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2012
• Performing Organization:
  University of North Texas, Health Science Center
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20070901
• Source Full Name:
  Zoonoses and Public Health
• End Date:
  20100831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:69371b2f697300753214fbb21bc0de7f8cf98056be9102855fa8edf4ab77a1055860b3f02c590e5e6fb0961ef5426a9855595a42d2e9079bb164efa2799e8317
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/194052/cdc_194052_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 95.35 KB ]