CANCER MORTALITY AMONG WORKERS IN ABATTOIRS AND MEATPACKING PLANTS - AN UPDATE

Workers in abattoirs and meatpacking plants have potential for exposur e to bovine leukemia virus (BLV) and bovine papilloma viruses (BPV), w hich are oncogenic in cattle. These workers also have increased exposu re to human papilloma viruses (HPV) and certain chemical carcinogens. We investigated whether such a group showed increased risk of cancers. We report mortality results after an additional 9-year follow-up of a previously studied group of 5,522 workers in abattoirs and 4,589 work ers in meatpacking plants. Excess risk of all cancers combined, cancer s of the lung, buccal cavity and pharynx, esophagus, colon, bladder, k idney, and bone was observed. Since factors such as tobacco smoking, a lcohol, and diet, which have known associations with some of these can cers, were not taken into account, the significance of these findings is not known, except for lung cancer, for which occupational factors a re probably involved. Because some of these findings have been consist ently reported before, studies that will control for confounding facto rs as well are now urgently needed. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.