Abstract
Work on Swedish petroleum tankers before the late 1980s has been associated with an increased risk of hematologic malignancy (HM). Since then, ship modernizations have decreased occupational exposure to gases, including the carcinogen benzene. We explored the risk of HMs in Swedish seafarers who had worked on newer types of tankers. A case-referent study in male seafarers from a cohort of all Swedish seafarers was set up by record linkage with the Swedish Cancer Registry using the subjects' personal identification number. For each case (N = 315), five referents were randomly chosen from within the cohort, matched by birth year and three different periods of first sea service (<1985, 1985-1991, and ≥1992). Information on the type of ship and dates of service was retrieved from the Swedish Seafarers' Registry. Odds ratios (OR) were calculated by conditional logistic regression together with 95% confidence intervals (CI). The OR of HM was 1.07 (95% CI, 0.80-1.42) for work on tankers. In seafarers that had started to work on tankers ≥1985, the OR was 0.85 (95% CI, 0.50-1.43). For those who started to work on tankers before 1985, the OR was 1.17 (95% CI, 0.84-1.21) and 1.32 (95% CI, 0.86-2.03) if the cumulative time on tankers exceeded 5 years of service. In this last group, the OR of multiple myeloma was 5.39 (95% CI, 1.11-26.1). Although limited by crude exposure contrast and a short follow-up, work on tankers after 1985 was not associated with an increased risk of HM among Swedish seafarers.
Highlights
While open or manual systems were common for such work in the past, potentially exposing a deck crewmember to high benzene levelsOn board tankers, benzene can be a constituent of the petroleum, the incargo or transported as a main product on chemical tankers
Benzene has been associated with an increased risk of hematologic malignancies (HMs): The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifies benzene as an established risk factor of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and acute non‐lymphocytic leukemia (ANLL) and a suspected risk factor of acute (ALL) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), non‐ Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), and multiple myeloma (MM).[10,11]
The cumulative time served on tankers seemed important, since the risk of HM appeared to be increased for seafarers that had started to work on older types of tankers in combination with several years of tanker work
Summary
While open or manual systems were common for such work in the past, potentially exposing a deck crewmember to high benzene levelsOn board tankers, benzene can be a constituent of the petroleum (eg, “gauging” by inspecting the cargo level through a vault), the incargo or transported as a main product on chemical tankers. Work on Swedish petroleum tankers before the late 1980s has been associated with an increased risk of hematologic malignancy (HM). We explored the risk of HMs in Swedish seafarers who had worked on newer types of tankers. For those who started to work on tankers before 1985, the OR was 1.17 (95% CI, 0.84‐ 1.21) and 1.32 (95% CI, 0.86‐2.03) if the cumulative time on tankers exceeded 5 years of service In this last group, the OR of multiple myeloma was 5.39 (95% CI, 1.11‐26.1). Conclusion: limited by crude exposure contrast and a short follow‐up, work on tankers after 1985 was not associated with an increased risk of HM among Swedish seafarers
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