Workplace exposure to the common pesticide diazinon could be responsible for an increase the risk of lung cancer and possibly other cancers. Findings from the long-running US government-sponsored Agricultural Health Study “found evidence of an association of lung cancer and leukaemia risk with increasing lifetime exposure days to diazinon,” said Dr Michael CR Alavanja from the National Cancer Institute and colleagues, reporting in the 1 December 2005 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Laura E Beane Freeman, Matthew R Bonner, Aaron Blair and others. Cancer incidence among male pesticide applicators in the Agricultural Health Study cohort exposed to diazinon, American Journal of Epidemiology Volume 162, Number 11 Pp. 1070-1079, 2005. Agricultural Health Study. Risks 235.

Firefighters are at a far higher risk of developing certain cancers than people in many other professions, according to new research. A University of Cincinnati team said exposure to substances such as benzene, chloroform and soot posed a threat. The analysis of 32 US and European studies covering 110,000 firefighters found rates of testicular cancer were 100 per cent higher and prostate cancer 28 per cent higher than expected. There was also a 50 per cent increasing in non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and multiple myeloma

GK LeMasters and others. Cancer risk among firefighters: A review and meta-analysis of 32 studies. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, volume 48, number 11, pages 1189-1202, November 2006.

Nine former employees of a US tyre plant who developed occupational cancers as a result of toxic exposures have been told by chemical giants it was their own fault. The group, who all worked at Uniroyal Goodrich Tire Co. in Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, were exposed to benzene but have been told they caused their own cancer because they “voluntarily used the chemicals knowing the dangers and risks, and they failed to take precautions which could have avoided injuries.” The allegation comes from 16 defendants in a US lawsuit, including Exxon Mobil Corp., Sun Petroleum Products Co., Texaco, Standard Oil Co., Shell Canada and Shell Chemical. The petrochemical companies say there were warnings on the chemicals and they were complying with industry standards, adding the cancers were due to unavoidable accidents or ‘abnormal or unintended uses’ of the products.

Risks 284. Confined Space.

Researchers have revealed that the co-author of the most frequently cited but much criticised estimate of occupational cancer prevalence had “secret ties to industry”. An analysis of the academic literature on occupational cancer found: ‘The most striking case is that of Sir Richard Doll, co-author (with Richard Peto) of one of the most influential papers in cancer epidemiology, one that concluded that only a small percentage of cancer was caused by environmental exposures.’ The same paper produced HSE’s ‘best overall estimate available’ of a 4 per cent occupational contribution to the total cancer incidence. The new analysis, due to be published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, shows Doll had a long term financial relationship with Monsanto between 1970 and 1990. The authors describe a letter from a Monsanto epidemiologist renewing Doll’s contract for £1,000 per day from Monsanto. The Doll and Peto paper was published in 1981. The Monsanto letter formed part of dossier of documents revealing Doll’s relationships with companies and trade associations. For example, in a paper on vinyl chloride cancer risks which was later to be heavily cited by industry groups, Doll did not disclose receiving £15,000 plus expenses from the Chemical Manufacturers’ Association and the vinyl chloride manufacturers ICI and Dow. Doll was also receiving payments at the same time from Monsanto, another large producer of vinyl chloride.

L Hardell, MJ Walker, B Walhjalt, LS Friedman and ED Richter, Secret ties to industry and conflicting interests in cancer research. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, in press (see 2007 entry). Summary at the Our Stolen Future website.

 Risks 283.

A new interactive web-based tool can help you find safer industrial cleaning alternatives that perform as well as hazardous chemicals. The free ‘CleanerSolutions’ database, produced by the Toxics Use Reduction Institute (TURI) at the University of Massachusetts Lowell in the USA, “helps companies understand how to choose alternatives so that overall risks to workers and the environment are reduced.”

CleanerSolutions database.

Staff at computer factories could be at increased risk of contracting cancer because of working environments containing high levels of chemicals, metals and electromagnetic fields, according to findings of a long suppressed US study. IBM fought for several years to prevent release of the study done by Richard Clapp, a Boston University professor of environmental health. The study analyses data collected by IBM itself on the ages and causes of death of nearly 32,000 people who had worked at IBM and died between 1969 and 2001. Dr Clapp got hold of the data, known as IBM’s “Corporate Mortality File,” as an expert witness who analysed it for lawyers in California. They had sued IBM on behalf of a number of workers at a disk-drive plant in San Jose who got cancer.

Richard W Clapp. Mortality among US employees of a large computer manufacturing company: 1969-2001, Environmental Health: A Global Access Science Source, volume 5, number 30, October 2006.

Men who work a rotating shift pattern may be at increased risk of prostate cancer, research suggests. Japanese scientists found that staff working rotating shifts were three times as likely to develop the disease as those working day or night shifts.

Tatsuhiko Kubo and others. Prospective cohort study of the risk of prostate cancer among rotating-shift workers: Findings from the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study, American Journal of Epidemiology, volume 164, pages 549-555, 2006.

People who are routinely exposed to lead at work are far more likely to die from brain cancer than people who are not exposed. The US study found the death rate among people with jobs that potentially exposed them to lead was 50 percent higher than unexposed people, and the number of deaths was larger than in many previous studies.

University of Rochester news release. Edwin van Wijngaarden and Mustafa Dosemeci. Brain cancer mortality and potential occupational exposure to lead: Findings from the National Longitudinal Mortality Study, 1979-1989, International Journal of Cancer, volume 119, issue 5, pages 1136-1144, 2006.

Corporate cancer kills off real prevention
The organisation representing occupational health doctors in the US has been labelled an “embarrassment” after making claims about the supposed “success” of occupational cancer prevention measures. The flak heading the way of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) has been amplified because of its support for a “CEO Cancer Gold Standard™”, backed largely by pharmaceutical companies and concentrating entirely on lifestyle measures.

ACOEM Labor Day checklist. CEO Cancer Gold Standard . Confined Space, September 2006.

A new study has confirmed a substantially increased risk of thyroid cancer among people exposed to radiation during childhood and adolescence after the Chernobyl disaster.

Mykola D Tronko, Geoffrey R Howe and others. A cohort study of thyroid cancer and other thyroid diseases after the Chernobyl accident: Thyroid cancer in Ukraine detected during first screening, JNCI, volume 98, no.13, pages 897-903, 2006.