Skip to main content
PMC home page
American Journal of Public Health logoLink to American Journal of Public Health
. 1990 Jun;80(6):670–674. doi: 10.2105/ajph.80.6.670

Case-control study of lung cancer and truck driving in the Teamsters Union.

N K Steenland 1, D T Silverman 1, R W Hornung 1
PMCID: PMC1404737  PMID: 1693040

Abstract

We conducted a case-control study of lung cancer deaths in the Teamsters Union to compare the risk of different occupations within the teamsters, after controlling for smoking and other confounders. Occupations with no presumed exposure to diesel fumes were used as the nonexposed group. The study population consisted of 996 cases and 1,085 controls who had died in 1982-83 after applying for pensions. Next of kin provided information on smoking, work history, and other potential confounders. Work history data were also obtained from the Teamsters Union. While no single job category had a significant excess risk compared to the non-exposed group, certain sub-groups were elevated. The odds ratio for those with long-term employment as long-haul truckers after 1959 (an approximate date for the introduction of diesel engines) was 1.55 (95% CI: 0.97, 2.47). Long-term drivers of primarily diesel trucks had an odds ratio of 1.89 (95% CI: 1.04, 3.42). Overall, our results suggest that diesel truck drivers have an excess risk of lung cancer compared to other teamsters in jobs outside the trucking industry. However, our findings were not uniformly consistent and our data have many limitations, the most important of which is the lack of data on exposure to diesel fumes.

Full text

PDF
670

Selected References

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

  1. Boffetta P., Stellman S. D., Garfinkel L. Diesel exhaust exposure and mortality among males in the American Cancer Society prospective study. Am J Ind Med. 1988;14(4):403–415. doi: 10.1002/ajim.4700140405. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Byers T., Vena J., Mettlin C., Swanson M., Graham S. Dietary vitamin A and lung cancer risk: an analysis by histologic subtypes. Am J Epidemiol. 1984 Nov;120(5):769–776. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a113945. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Garshick E., Schenker M. B., Muñoz A., Segal M., Smith T. J., Woskie S. R., Hammond S. K., Speizer F. E. A case-control study of lung cancer and diesel exhaust exposure in railroad workers. Am Rev Respir Dis. 1987 Jun;135(6):1242–1248. doi: 10.1164/arrd.1987.135.6.1242. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Humble C. G., Samet J. M., Skipper B. E. Use of quantified and frequency indices of vitamin A intake in a case-control study of lung cancer. Int J Epidemiol. 1987 Sep;16(3):341–346. doi: 10.1093/ije/16.3.341. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Lemeshow S., Hosmer D. W., Jr A review of goodness of fit statistics for use in the development of logistic regression models. Am J Epidemiol. 1982 Jan;115(1):92–106. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a113284. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. McLaughlin J. K., Dietz M. S., Mehl E. S., Blot W. J. Reliability of surrogate information on cigarette smoking by type of informant. Am J Epidemiol. 1987 Jul;126(1):144–146. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a114647. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Rohl A. N., Langer A. M., Wolff M. S., Weisman I. Asbestos exposure during brake lining maintenance and repair. Environ Res. 1976 Aug;12(1):110–128. doi: 10.1016/0013-9351(76)90013-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Steele R. R. Staff meetings are more productive if they are planned and controlled. Dent Off. 1989 Aug;1(4):4–18. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from American Journal of Public Health are provided here courtesy of American Public Health Association

RESOURCES