An investigation on the malignancy incidence among rubber industrial workers in Hainan province

Abstract

To investigate the malignancy incidence among rubber manufacture and preliminary processing industrial workers in Hainan Province of China. A retrospective survey was conducted on 9 farms in Hainan covering workers who got malignant tumor between January 1, 2005 and October 31, 2010. On average there were 10 320 workers worked on the 9 farms each year. Among them, 167 cases of malignancy were found. The morbidity was 279.01 every a hundred thousand and standardized morbidity was 159.03 every a hundred thousand; In comparison, we also investigated 14228 non-rubber-industry-related workers. 94 malignancy cases were found. The morbidity was 113.91 every a hundred thousand and standardized morbidity was 64.93 every a hundred thousand. The difference was statistically significant (P<0.01) meaning that rubber industrial workers in Hainan Province had a higher possibility of getting malignancy. Top 5 types of cancer found in this study were lung cancer (17.96%), liver cancer (17.36%), stomach cancer (13.17%), rectal cancer and nasopharyngeal carcinoma. 116 cases of these five types of cancer took up 69.45% of the total. Rubber industrial workers in Hainan have a higher morbidity of malignancy than other local industries. But it is similar to other areas in China.