Occupational Safety and Health Research (R01-OH-011092)

Details

• Personal Author:
  Eisen EA
• Description:
  We report updated evidence for the carcinogenicity of metalworking fluids (MWF) based on cancer incidence, rather than mortality. Although no single type of cancer has been consistently associated with MWF throughout these studies of the UAWGM cohort, we continue to find evidence for modest increases in risk of many different cancers, despite reductions in exposure to aerosolized metalworking fluids (MWF) over the past 75 years in these automobile manufacturing plants. For this grant, we examined the incidence of each of 14 cancers in relation to each type of MWF; oil-based straight, water-based soluble with a little mineral oil, and water-based synthetic MWF with no oil at all. We applied causal inference methods (e.g.parametric g-formula) when pathway conditions indicate that the healthy worker survivor effect was operating for a specific cancer. Our results indicate that long term exposure to both straight and soluble MWF is associated with a modest increase in all-cancers-combined. When we look at each cancer separately, we find several positive results. Straight MWF continues to be the most hazardous of the three broad types of MWF. Cumulative straight exposure is modestly associated with increasing the risk of stomach cancer, kidney cancer, colon and possibly bladder cancer, as well female breast cancer. Together with previous results, these findings will potentially impact the workplace by reinforcing existing efforts to reduce exposure to straight MWF via substitution by water-based MWF (soluble or synthetic) in metalworking operations throughout industry. Today water-based MWF are more common than straight. Although the water-based fluids appear to be less carcinogenic than the oil-based straights, there remains some elevated risk to autoworkers exposed to any type of MWF. Our results suggest that water-based fluids are also associated with increased risk of cancer incidence; soluble MWF was associated with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and synthetic MWF was linked to lung cancer, as well as esophageal and rectal cancer. These findings suggest that more stringent limits on water-based synthetic and soluble MWF may also be needed. There is currently no OSHA PEL for MWF. Beyond the updated exposure-response findings for metalworking fluids information, our work on this iconic cohort of autoworkers has promoted the application of novel biostatistics and epidemiologic methods needed to address the healthy worker survivor effect. We propose a novel weighting approach to account for the additional survivor bias that arises because only those workers still alive decades after start of mortality follow-up were eligible for cancer incidence follow-up in the Michigan Cancer Registry (left truncation). NIOSH recommends an exposure limit for all types of MWF combined of 0.5 mg/m3. In a novel approach to risk assessment, we focused on lung cancer because it was modestly associated with both straight MWF in the weighted analysis and with synthetic fluid when g-methods were applied. Our risk assessment was based on g-methods and suggests that an exposure limit of 0.05 mg/m3 for any type of MWF, just 10% of the NIOSH REL, is not low enough to limit lifetime risk of lung cancer to the OSHA goal of 1/1000. The complex longitudinal data that comprise the UAW-GM cohort study have provided the basis for substantial methodologic investigations during the course of this grant period that have broadly contributed to the field of occupational epidemiology. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Automobiles Cohort Studies Epidemiology Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Neoplasms Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Automotive Industry Biostatistics Cancer Rates Cohort Studies Longitudinal Study Manufacturing Metalworking Fluids MWFs
• Series:
  Grant Final Reports
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Final Grant Report
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OEP - Office of Extramural Programs
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-22
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20068430
• Citation:
  Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, R01-OH-011092, 2023 Feb; :1-22
• Contact Point Address:
  Ellen Aura Eisen, ScD, University of California Berkeley, 1608 Fourth Street, Suite 220, Berkeley, CA 94710-1749
• Email:
  eeisen@berkeley.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2023
• NORA Priority Area:
  Manufacturing
• Performing Organization:
  University of California, Berkeley
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20180915
• Source Full Name:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• End Date:
  20210914
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:30f8f85840051efed3f3394d85e433fed64a020846a1ba2bac8599f422fe6cb533c6afdff35c231a278a59004ff31a85476501f27364c55cb0914bb373854da4
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/219222/cdc_219222_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 304.48 KB ]