Abstract
BackgroundAn earlier study of research facility workers found more brain cancer deaths than expected, but no workplace exposures were implicated.MethodsAdding four additional years of vital-status follow-up, we reassessed the risk of death from brain cancer in the same workforce, including 5,284 workers employed between 1963, when the facility opened, and 2007. We compared the work histories of the brain cancer decedents in relationship to when they died and their ages at death.ResultsAs in most other studies of laboratory and research workers, we found low rates of total mortality, total cancers, accidents, suicides, and chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. We found no new brain cancer deaths in the four years of additional follow-up. Our best estimate of the brain cancer standardized mortality ratio (SMR) was 1.32 (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 0.66–2.37), but the SMR might have been as high as 1.69. Deaths from benign brain tumors and other non-malignant diseases of the nervous system were at or below expected levels.ConclusionWith the addition of four more years of follow-up and in the absence of any new brain cancers, the updated estimate of the risk of brain cancer death is smaller than in the original study. There was no consistent pattern among the work histories of decedents that indicated a common causative exposure.
Highlights
In 2001, a young chemist was diagnosed with brain cancer at a Rohm and Haas research facility in Spring House, Pennsylvania
As in most other studies of laboratory and research workers, we found low rates of total mortality, total cancers, accidents, suicides, and chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes
We found no additional primary brain cancers or unspecified brain tumors, and so there was no need for obtaining additional information from medical providers
Summary
In 2001, a young chemist was diagnosed with brain cancer at a Rohm and Haas research facility in Spring House, Pennsylvania This event closely followed the death from brain cancer of another former worker at the facility and the publication and press accounts of several brain cancers at the Amoco Research Facility in Illinois [1,2,3]. Based on these concerns, Rohm and Haas initiated a study to determine if employees at this facility had increased risk of brain cancer mortality. There was no consistent pattern among the work histories of decedents that indicated a common causative exposure
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