Chapter 8 - Sinonasal cancer and wood dust exposure

Abstract

This chapter discusses the excess risk of sinonasal cancer among workers exposed to wood dust. The quantification of the association between the disease and exposure is given as a relative risk (RR), which is the risk among exposed subjects divided by the risk among the unexposed population. For descriptive studies, the measure used is a comparison between the exposed subjects and the general population, which comprises both exposed and unexposed subjects. If there is no association, the observed figure is close to one, irrespective of the measure used. Relative risk for sinonasal cancer was given by the wood-related occupational category, separately for adenocarcinoma and squamous cell cancer. For adenocarcinomas among men, a high relative risk was associated with employment in wood-related jobs (RR = 13.5). The risk was found to be higher among furniture workers (RR = 41.1). The relative risk was lower than one for forestry, logging, and pulp, and paper workers. No association was observed among men between squamous cell carcinoma and employment in all wood-related occupations (RR = 0.8). The chapter shows the analysis among men by level of wood dust exposure indicating a clear relationship between the risk of adenocarcinoma and the level of exposure, with a RR of 45.5 for high exposure.