Skip to main content
British Journal of Industrial Medicine logoLink to British Journal of Industrial Medicine
. 1991 Aug;48(8):511–514. doi: 10.1136/oem.48.8.511

A prospective study in the Australian petroleum industry. II. Incidence of cancer.

D Christie 1, K Robinson 1, I Gordon 1, J Bisby 1
PMCID: PMC1035411  PMID: 1878307

Abstract

This paper reports incidence of cancer in employees of the Australian petroleum industry from 1981 to 1989. Two surveys by personal interview incorporated more than 15,000 employees, representing 92% of the eligible population. Subjects were included in the analysis after completing five years of service in the industry. At the time of this report the cohort did not include sufficiently large numbers of women for useful analysis; results presented are restricted to the men. On 31 December 1989, 50,254 person-years of observation had accumulated in the men with 152 incident cancers reported. The standardised incidence ratio (SIR) analysis showed overall cancer rates close to those of the national population. Whereas deficits were seen in some cancer sites, notably lung cancer (SIR 0.5, 95% confidence internal (95% CI) 0.3-0.9), incidence rates for some other cancer sites suggested increased risk. An excess of observed over expected cases was present in all subcategories of lymphohaematopoietic cancer except Hodgkin's disease (no cases), and was most apparent in myeloid leukaemia (SIR 4.0, 95% CI 1.6-8.2). The other major site with a raised number of cases observed over expected was melanoma (SIR 1.4, 95% CI 0.8-2.1).

Full text

PDF
511

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Arp E. W., Jr, Wolf P. H., Checkoway H. Lymphocytic leukemia and exposures to benzene and other solvents in the rubber industry. J Occup Med. 1983 Aug;25(8):598–602. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Austin H., Delzell E., Cole P. Benzene and leukemia. A review of the literature and a risk assessment. Am J Epidemiol. 1988 Mar;127(3):419–439. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a114820. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Baarson K. A., Snyder C. A., Albert R. E. Repeated exposure of C57Bl mice to inhaled benzene at 10 ppm markedly depressed erythropoietic colony formation. Toxicol Lett. 1984 Mar;20(3):337–342. doi: 10.1016/0378-4274(84)90169-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Berry G. The analysis of mortality by the subject-years method. Biometrics. 1983 Mar;39(1):173–184. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Butturini A., Gale R. P. Chemotherapy versus transplantation in acute leukaemia. Br J Haematol. 1989 May;72(1):1–8. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2141.1989.tb07642.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Christie D., Robinson K., Gordon I., Bisby J. A prospective study in the Australian petroleum industry. I. Mortality. Br J Ind Med. 1991 Aug;48(8):507–510. doi: 10.1136/oem.48.8.507. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Decouflé P., Blattner W. A., Blair A. Mortality among chemical workers exposed to benzene and other agents. Environ Res. 1983 Feb;30(1):16–25. doi: 10.1016/0013-9351(83)90161-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Infante P. F., White M. C. Projections of leukemia risk associated with occupational exposure to benzene. Am J Ind Med. 1985;7(5-6):403–413. doi: 10.1002/ajim.4700070507. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Liddell F. D. Simple exact analysis of the standardised mortality ratio. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1984 Mar;38(1):85–88. doi: 10.1136/jech.38.1.85. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Rinsky R. A., Smith A. B., Hornung R., Filloon T. G., Young R. J., Okun A. H., Landrigan P. J. Benzene and leukemia. An epidemiologic risk assessment. N Engl J Med. 1987 Apr 23;316(17):1044–1050. doi: 10.1056/NEJM198704233161702. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Rozen M. G., Snyder C. A., Albert R. E. Depressions in B- and T-lymphocyte mitogen-induced blastogenesis in mice exposed to low concentrations of benzene. Toxicol Lett. 1984 Mar;20(3):343–349. doi: 10.1016/0378-4274(84)90170-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Snyder C. A., Goldstein B. D., Sellakumar A. R., Bromberg I., Laskin S., Albert R. E. The inhalation toxicology of benzene: incidence of hematopoietic neoplasms and hematotoxicity in ARK/J and C57BL/6J mice. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 1980 Jun 30;54(2):323–331. doi: 10.1016/0041-008x(80)90202-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Synder C. A., Goldstein B. D., Sellakumar A., Wolman S. R., Bromberg I., Erlichman M. N., Laskin S. Hematotoxicity of inhaled benzene to Sprague-Dawley rats and AKR mice at 300 ppm. J Toxicol Environ Health. 1978 Jul;4(4):605–618. doi: 10.1080/15287397809529683. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Wong O. An industry wide mortality study of chemical workers occupationally exposed to benzene. I. General results. Br J Ind Med. 1987 Jun;44(6):365–381. doi: 10.1136/oem.44.6.365. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Wong O. An industry wide mortality study of chemical workers occupationally exposed to benzene. II. Dose response analyses. Br J Ind Med. 1987 Jun;44(6):382–395. doi: 10.1136/oem.44.6.382. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Wong O., Raabe G. K. Critical review of cancer epidemiology in petroleum industry employees, with a quantitative meta-analysis by cancer site. Am J Ind Med. 1989;15(3):283–310. doi: 10.1002/ajim.4700150305. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Young N. Benzene and lymphoma. Am J Ind Med. 1989;15(5):495–498. doi: 10.1002/ajim.4700150502. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from British Journal of Industrial Medicine are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES