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Residential proximity to naturally occurring asbestos and mesothelioma risk in California.

Pan XL; Day HW; Wang W; Beckett LA; Schenker MB

Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2005 Oct; 172(8):1019-1025

https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.200412-1731OC

20033324

Rationale: Little is known about environmental exposure to low levels of naturally occurring asbestos (NOA) and malignant mesothelioma (MM) risk. OBJECTIVES: To conduct a cancer registry-based case control study of residential proximity to NOA with MM in California. Methods: Incident MM cases (n = 2,908) aged 35 yr or more, diagnosed between 1988 and 1997, were selected from the California Cancer Registry and frequency matched to control subjects with pancreatic cancer (n = 2,908) by 5-yr age group and sex. Control subjects were selected by stratified random sampling from 28,123 incident pancreatic cancers in the same time period. We located 93.7% of subjects at the house or street level at initial diagnosis. Individual occupational exposure to asbestos was derived from the longest held occupation, available for 74% of MM cases and 63% of pancreatic cancers. Occupational exposure to asbestos was determined by a priori classification and confirmed by association with mesothelioma. Main results: The adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence interval for low, medium, and high probabilities of occupational exposures to asbestos were 1.71 (1.32-2.21), 2.51 (1.91-3.30), and 14.94 (8.37-26.67), respectively. Logistic regression analysis from a subset of 1,133 mesothelioma cases and 890 control subjects with pancreatic cancer showed that the odds of mesothelioma decreased approximately 6.3% for every 10 km farther from the nearest asbestos source, an odds ratio of 0.937 (95% confidence interval = 0.895-0.982), adjusted for age, sex, and occupational exposure to asbestos. Conclusions: These data support the hypothesis that residential proximity to NOA is significantly associated with increased risk of MM in California.

Asbestos-fibers; Asbestosis; Mesothelial-cells; Lung; Lung-burden; Lung-disease; Lung-disorders; Lung-fibrosis; Lung-function; Lung-irritants; Risk-analysis; Risk-factors; Environmental-exposure; Environmental-factors; Environmental-hazards; Environmental-health; Environmental-pollution; Exposure-levels; Exposure-limits; Malignancy; Cancer; Cancer-rates; Occupational-exposure; Occupational-hazards; Occupational-health; Occupational-respiratory-disease; Statistical-analysis; Epidemiology

Xue-lei Pan, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA 95616-8638

AJCMED

20051015

Journal Article

mbschenker@ucdavis.edu

Agriculture; Cooperative Agreement

2006

Cooperative-Agreement-Number-U50-OH-007550

8

1073-449X

American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine

CA

University of California - Davis