Air Quality Criteria for Lead Volume II of II - (NEPIS)(EPA) - US ...

AX6-194
Table AX6-7.4. Other Studies of Lead Exposure and Cancer
Reference, Study
Location, and Period Study Description Pb Measurement Findings and Interpretation
United States
Mallin et al. (1989)
Illinois
1979-1984
Cocco et al. (1998a)
U.S.
1984-1992
Case-control design.
Cases: random sample of 10,013 deaths
from 7 specific cancers, identified from
death certificates for Illinois males
between 1979 and 1984.
Controls: 3,198 randomly selected
deaths from other causes.
Odds of exposure computed for glass
workers vs. other occupations.
Case-control design.
Cases: all 27,060 brain cancer deaths
occurring among persons aged 35 or
older during 1984-1992, from U.S.
24-state death certificate registry.
Controls: 4 gender-, race-, age-, and
region-matched controls per case
selected from deaths due to
nonmalignant causes.
Subjects were subdivided into 4 groups
by gender and race (white or African-
American) for all analyses.
Exposure was based on
occupations abstracted from
death certificates.
No specific measure of Pb
exposure; glass workers can be
considered potentially exposed.
A job-exposure matrix was
applied to death certificate-listed
occupations to categorize
persons as having low, medium,
or high probability and intensity
of exposure.
Brain cancer, white male glass workers:
OR = 3.0, p < 0.05
No significant associations for other cancer sites.
No control for smoking or other risk factors. Poor specificity for Pb
exposure.
Risk of brain cancer mortality increased consistently with intensity of
exposure among African-American males, but not other race-gender
groups.
Probability of exposure alone was not consistently associated with
risk.
In the high-probability group, risk increased with exposure intensity
for all groups except African-American women (only 1 death in the
high-probability group).
Exposure estimate was based solely on occupation listed on death
certificate, hence there was substantial opportunity for
misclassification.