Exposure-response assessment of cancer mortality in styrene-exposed boatbuilders

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Occup Environ Med
• Personal Author:
  Daniels, Robert D. ; Bertke, Stephen J.
• Description:
  Objectives
  
  To improve exposure estimates and reexamine exposure-response relationships between cumulative styrene exposure and cancer mortality in a previously studied cohort of U.S. boatbuilders exposed between 1959 and 1978 and followed through 2016.
  
  Methods
  
  Cumulative styrene exposure was estimated from work assignments and air-sampling data. Exposure-response relationships between styrene and select cancers were examined in Cox proportional hazards models matched on attained age, sex, race, birth cohort, and employment duration. Models adjusted for socioeconomic status (SES). Exposures were lagged 10-years or by a period maximizing the likelihood. Hazard ratios (HRs) included 95% profile-likelihood confidence intervals (CIs). Actuarial methods were used to estimate the styrene exposure corresponding to 10−4 extra lifetime risk.
  
  Results
  
  The cohort (n = 5,163) contributed 201,951 person-years. Exposures were right-skewed, with mean and median of 31 and 5.7 ppm-years, respectively. Positive, monotonic exposure-response associations were evident for leukemia (HR at 50 ppm-years styrene = 1.46; 95% CI: 1.04 to 1.97) and bladder cancer (HR at 50 ppm-years styrene = 1.64; 95% CI: 1.14 to 2.33). There was no evidence of confounding by SES. A working lifetime exposure to 0.05 ppm styrene corresponded to one extra leukemia death per 10,000 workers.
  
  Conclusions
  
  The study contributes evidence of exposure-response associations between cumulative styrene exposure and cancer. Simple risk projections at current exposure levels indicate a need for formal risk assessment. Future recommendations on worker protection would benefit from additional research clarifying cancer risks from styrene exposure.
  
  
• Keywords:
  Adult Cohort Studies Construction Materials Female Humans Male Middle Aged Neoplasms Occupational Exposure Proportional Hazards Models Risk Factors Ships Social Class Styrene Washington Workplace

  More +
• Source:
  Occup Environ Med. 77(10):706-712
• Pubmed ID:
  32471836
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC7494518
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  77
• Issue:
  10
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:90a7d182aa2378533b7f3a5a3309c389bd97f3467a5cf81a636cd44daf6e58d6
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/93856/cdc_93856_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 514.78 KB ]