Occupational Exposure to Polychlorinated Biphenyls and Risk of Breast Cancer

Details

• Journal Article:
  Environmental Health Perspectives
• Personal Author:
  Silver, Sharon R. ; Whelan, Elizabeth A. ; Deddens, James A. ; Steenland, Kyle ; Hopf, Nancy B. ; Waters, Martha A. ; Ruder, Avima M. ; Prince, Mary M. ; Yong, Lee C. ; Hein, Misty J. ; Ward, Elizabeth M.
• Description:
  Background: Despite the endocrine system activity exhibited by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), recent studies have shown little association between PCB exposure and breast cancer mortality. Objectives: To further evaluate the relation between PCB exposure and breast cancer risk, we studied incidence, a more sensitive endpoint than mortality, in an occupational cohort. Methods: We followed 5,752 women employed at least a year in one of three capacitor manufacturing facilities, identifying cases from questionnaires, cancer registries, and death certificates through 1998. We collected lifestyle and reproductive information via questionnaire from participants or next of kin and used semi-quantitative job-exposure matrices (JEMs) for inhalation and dermal exposures combined. We generated standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) and standardized rate ratios (SRRs) and used Cox proportional hazards regression models to evaluate potential confounders and effect modifiers. Results: Overall, the breast cancer SIR was 0.81 (95% CI 0.72, 0.92, n=257), and regression modeling showed little effect of employment duration or cumulative exposure. However, for the 362 women of questionnaire-identified races other than white, we observed positive, statistically significant associations with employment duration and cumulative exposure; only smoking, birth cohort, and self or proxy questionnaire completion had statistically significant explanatory power when added to models with exposure metrics. Conclusions: We found no overall elevation in breast cancer risk following occupational exposure to PCBs. However, the exposure-related risk elevations seen among non-white workers, while of limited interpretability given the small number of cases, warrant further investigation, as the usual reproductive risk factors accounted for little of the increased risk. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Carcinogens Endocrine System Endocrine System Diseases Epidemiology Mortality Neoplasms Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Polychlorinated Biphenyls Risk Factors Safety Surveys And Questionnaires

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• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Breast Cancer; Incidence; Occupational Epidemiology; Polychlorinated Biphenyls Polychlorinated-biphenyls; Endocrine-system-disorders; Endocrine-system; Endocrine-function; Breast-cancer; Cancer; Cancer-rates; Mortality-rates; Epidemiology; Statistical-analysis; Humans;
• Source:
  Environ Health Perspect 2009 Feb; 117(2):276-282
• ISSN:
  0091-6765
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Georgia ; New Jersey ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 2 ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 4 ; OSHA Region 5 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies ; DART - Division of Applied Research and Technology
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  7 pdf pages
• Volume:
  117
• Issue:
  2
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20034680
• Contact Point Address:
  Sharon R. Silver, M.S., Industrywide Studies Branch, DSHEFS, NIOSH, 4676 Columbia Parkway, R-15, Cincinnati, Ohio 45226
• Email:
  SSilver@cdc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2009
• NORA Priority Area:
  Manufacturing
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:d51f081ad254ed2630e060c749b3237a1e5bea366bfc1617591d493f7f654837fa620613ca2ad088c32988503b2cbbcc5a45a982007dbbbcf88a90d5058e23fb
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/3802/cdc_3802_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 839.23 KB ]