Table 1.
Epidemiologic cohort studies of the upstate New York capacitor manufacturing cohort
| Reference | N | Eligibility criteria | Update through |
PCB exp | Entire Cohort Cause, deaths, SMR (CI)a |
Highly exposedb Cause, deaths, ratio (CI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brown and Jones (1981) | 968 (385 women, 583 men) |
≥3 months work 1946–1976, possible PCB exposure, no TCE exposure |
1976 | 1977 personal air samples 24–393 μg/m3 area samples 3–476 μg/m3 |
All 73, SMR 0.95 (0.8–1.1) | |
| Cancer 13, SMR 0.8 (0.4–1.3) | ||||||
| Rectal ca 1, SMR 1.4 (0.0–12) | ||||||
| Liver ca 1, SMR 2.4 (0.0–20) | ||||||
| Brown (1987) | 981: (383 women, 593 men) |
≥3 months work 1946–1976 | 1982 | 1977 personal air samples 24–393 μg/m3 area samples 3–476 μg/m3 |
All 116, SMR 0.9 (0.7–1.1) | |
| Cancer 18, SMR 0.6 (0.3–0.9) | ||||||
| Rectal ca 1, SMR 1.2 (0.0–10) | ||||||
| Liver ca 1, SMR 0.7 (0.0–5.4) | ||||||
| Prince et al. (2006a, b) | 973 | ≥3 months work 1946–1977 with direct PCB exposure (impregnation, sealing, testing capacitors)+no solvent exposure |
1998 | 1977 personal air samples 24–393 μg/m3 area samples 3–476 μg/m3 |
All 1586, SMR 0.87 (0.8–0.9) | All 310, SMR 0.95(0.9–1.1) |
| All cancer 473, SMR 0.95 (0.9–1.0) | All cancer 71, SMR 0.8 (0.6–1.0) | |||||
| Pancreas ca 21, SMR 0.9 (0.6–1.4) | Pancreas ca 25, SMR 0.95 (0.6–1.4) | |||||
| Rectal ca 11, SMR 1.2 (0.6–2.2) | Rectal ca 1, SMR 0.6 (0.0–3.3) | |||||
| Liver ca 9, SMR 0.8 (0.4–1.5) | Liver ca 4, SMR 1.9 (0.5–4.9) | |||||
| Intestinal ca 53. SMR 1.2 (0.9–1.6) | Intestinal ca 8. SMR 1.0 (0.4–2.0) | |||||
| Kidney ca 10, SMR 0.9 (0.4–1.8) | Kidney ca 2, SMR 1.1 (0.3–3.8) | |||||
| Prostate ca 21, SMR 1.0 (0.6–15) | Prostate ca 5, SMR 1.4 (0.5–3.3) | |||||
| Lymph-hemat 10, SMR 0.7 (0.3–1.3) | Lymph-hemat 10, SMR 0.7 (0.3–1.3) | |||||
| Ruder et al. (submitted) |
8,727 (3,792 women; 4,935 men) |
>1 day work 1946–1977 | 2008 | 1977 personal air samples 24–393 μg/m3 area samples 3–476 μg/m3 |
Prostate ca 47 deaths, SMR 1.2 (0.9–1.6) | Prostate ca cum exp quartiles : <45,000 unit-days, 11 deaths, SRRb 1.0 |
| 45,000–150,000 unit –days, 11 deaths, SRR 1.5 |
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| 150,000–1, 300,000 unit –days, 11 deaths, SRR 1.4 |
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| Stomach ca 17 deaths, SMR 0.6 (0.4–0.97) | 1, 300,000+unit–days, 11 deaths, SRR 3.1 | |||||
| p (trend)=0.0026 | ||||||
| Stomach ca cum exp quartiles: <110,000 unit days, 3 deaths, SRR 1.0 |
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| 110,000–340,000 unit days, 4 deaths, SRR 4.4 |
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| 340,000–790,000 unit days, 3 deaths, SRR 5.1 |
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| 790,000+ unit days, 4 deaths, SRR 4.8 | ||||||
| P (trend) 0.044 | ||||||
| Nicholson et al. (1987) | 729 (322 women, 447 men) |
≥5years employment beginning before 1954 |
1982 | All cause men 43, SMR 0.95 (0.7–1.3)d | ||
| All cancer 37, SMR 0.97 (0.7–1.3) | ||||||
| pancreas ca 1, SMR 0.5 (0.0–4.0) | ||||||
| rectal ca 2, SMR 1.7 (0.2–7.2) | ||||||
| Intestinal ca 2, SMR 0.5 (0.1–2.0) | ||||||
| Liver ca 0 | ||||||
| Lymph-hemat 6, SMR 1.9 (0.7–4.3) | ||||||
| Taylor et al. (1988) | 6,292 (2,691 women, 3,601 men) |
≥3 months work 1946–1975 | 1980 | 1975 air samples geometric mean (GM) 679 μg/m3 direct exposure areas; GM 260 μg/m3 indirect exposure areas; 1977 air samples GM 310 μg/m3 direct exposure areas; GM 27 μg/m3 indirect exposure areas; 1977 personal air samples GM 168 μg/m3 direct exposure areas |
All 510, SMR 0.8 (0.8, 0.9) | |
| All cancer 136, SMR 0.9 (0.8–1.1) | ||||||
| Pancreas ca 10, SMR 1.6 (0.8–2.9) | ||||||
| Rectal ca 7, SMR 2.0 (0.8–4.3) | ||||||
| Intestinal ca 18, SMR 1.5 (0.9–2.3) | ||||||
| Liver ca 3, SMR 1.2 (0.2–3.8) | ||||||
| Lymph-hemat 10, SMR 0.7 (0.3–1.3 | ||||||
| Kimbrough et al. (1999) | 7,075 (3,013 women, 4,062 men) |
≥3 months work 1946–1977 | 1946–1993 | High exp: filling & impregnating 1975 air samples 227–1,500 μg/m3 |
All 1,195, SMR 0.8 (0.7–0.8); | All 966, SMR 0.9 (0.8–0.9) |
| All cancer 353, SMR 0.9 (0.8–1.0) | All cancer 278, SMR 1.0 (0.8–1.1) | |||||
| Rectal ca 10, SMR 1.3 (0.6–2.5) | Rectal ca 7, SMR 1.2 (0.5–2.6) | |||||
| Liver ca 5, SMR 0.9 (0.3–2.0) | Liver ca 4, SMR 0.9(0.2–2.4) | |||||
| Kimbrough et al. (2003) | 7,075 (3,013 women, 4,062 men) |
≥3 months work 1946–1977 | 1946–1998 | Hi exp: Filling & impregnating 1975 air samples 227–1,500 μg/m3 |
All, 1,654, SMR 0.9 (0.85–0.93) | All 1,333, SMR 1.0 (0.9–1.0) |
| All cancer 492 SMR 1.0 (0.9–1.1) | All cancer 381, SMR 1.0 (0.9–1.2) | |||||
| Rectal ca 12, SMR 1.3 (0.7–2.3) | Rectal ca 8, SMR 1.2 (0.5–2.4) | |||||
| Liver ca 9, SMR 0.8 (0.4–1.5) | Liver ca 8, SMR 1.0 (0.4–1.9) |
a
Standardized mortality ratio (SMR)
b
The definition of “highly exposed” varies from study to study
c
Standardized relative risk (SRR) compares rates across quantiles of exposure
d
The Nicholson et al. (1987) data were not published but appear in a report issued by the Ontario Ministy of Labor. The table with the data on women workers duplicates the observed and expected all causes values presented for men in the previous table; this likely represents an inadvertent copying of the data for men, so is not presented here