Lung cancer risk among bakers, pastry cooks and confectionary makers: the SYNERGY study.
Thomas Behrens, Benjamin Kendzia, Tabea Treppmann, Ann Olsson, Karl-Heinz Jöckel, Per Gustavsson, Hermann Pohlabeln, Wolfgang Ahrens, Irene Brüske, Hans-Erich Wichmann, Franco Merletti, Dario Mirabelli, Lorenzo Richiardi, Lorenzo Simonato, David Zaridze, Neonila Szeszenia-Dabrowska, Peter Rudnai, Jolanta Lissowska, Eleonora Fabianova, Adonina Tardón, John Field, Rodica Stanescu Dumitru, Vladimir Bencko, Lenka Foretova, Vladimir Janout, Jack Siemiatycki, Marie-Elise Parent, John McLaughlin, Paul Demers, Maria Teresa Landi, Neil Caporaso, Hans Kromhout, Roel Vermeulen, Susan Peters, Simone Benhamou, Isabelle Stücker, Florence Guida, Dario Consonni, Bas Bueno-de-Mesquita, Andrea 't Mannetje, Neil Pearce, Lap Ah Tse, Ignatius Tak-sun Yu, Nils Plato, Paolo Boffetta, Kurt Straif, Joachim Schüz, Beate Pesch, Thomas Brüning
Author Information
Thomas Behrens: Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine of the German Social Accident Insurance (IPA) Institute of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
INTRODUCTION: Some studies have suggested increased lung cancer risks among bakers, however the results overall were inconsistent. The authors studied lung cancer risks among bakers and baking-related occupations in the SYNERGY pooled case-control database from 16 countries. METHODS: Occupation in a baking-related job was identified from the subjects' job histories. ORs adjusted for log(age), study centre, smoking behaviour and ever employment in a job with known exposure to occupational lung carcinogens were calculated by unconditional logistic regression. Findings were stratified by sex, histological subtype of lung cancer and smoking status. RESULTS: 19 366 cases (15 606 men) and 23 670 control subjects (18 528 men) were included. 473 cases (415 men, 58 women) and 501 controls (437 men, 64 women) had ever worked in baking or a related job. We did not observe an increased risk for men in baking (OR 1.01; 95% CI 0.86 to 1.18). No linear trends were observed for duration of employment. Some results suggested increased lung cancer risks for women, for example, for working as a baker for >30 years and in never-smokers, but after exclusion of one study these increased risks disappeared. DISCUSSION: The findings from this study do not suggest increased lung cancer risks in baking-related professions.
References
Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2011 Apr 1;183(7):941-8
[PMID: 21037020]
Int J Occup Environ Health. 1998 Oct-Dec;4(4):236-40
[PMID: 9876632]
Int J Cancer. 2006 May 15;118(10):2567-71
[PMID: 16380992]
J Toxicol Environ Health A. 2009;72(10):658-75
[PMID: 19308851]
