risk of developing brain cancer
People in certain occupations are at greater risk of developing brain cancer, a Yale investigation shows.
"Brain cancer incidence and mortality have been increasing in many industrialized countries, particularly among elderly people," says Tongzhang Zheng, associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the School of Medicine and principal investigator of the findings published in a recent issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. "Improved diagnosis and access to medical care, genetic predisposition and lifestyle factors, such as smoking, drinking alcohol and diet, are not enough to explain the increase."
"The major findings of this investigation were that an increased risk of brain cancer was associated with agricultural industry and farm occupations; industries producing rubber and miscellaneous plastic products; industries and occupations that have a potential for exposure to gasoline or solvents (including service station attendants and waitresses); industries producing apparel and other textile products; employment in electric services, and electrical and electronic equipment, plumbing, heating and air conditioning and sheet metal working industries," Zheng says.
The investigation includes 375 cases of brain glioma, a tumor of the neurolgia cells, as compared with 2,434 comparable persons who did not develop brain cancer.
"An increased risk of brain cancer for workers in these industries could be due to their exposures to pesticides, solvents, dyes and formaldehyde, metal fumes and other chemical or physical carcinogens, since some of these have been associated with brain cancer risk," Zheng says. He emphasized, however, that more studies are needed."
-- By Jacqueline Weaver
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