INDUSTRIAL WORK AND LUNG-CANCER

In a hospital-based case-control study, 316 lung cancer cases and 536 controls were interviewed for their occupational, smoking, passive smo king, cancer in the family and residential histories as well as social economic status by trained interviewers, using a standardized questio nnaire. Cases and controls were matched by hospital, sex and age. The study was carried out between Ist July 1990 and 31st January 1991 in 1 4 hospitals in the Metropolitan Region of S. Paulo, the most highly in dustrialized and urbanized region in Brazil. Score criteria were devel oped for the ordering of the individuals of the study by occupational exposure to know carcinogens to the lung, in order to evaluate this ex posure during the occupational life of each person. The criteria accum ulated information on exposure to carcinogens as regards type, sector of work and time in each employment. The unconditional logistic regres sion analysis showed an odds ratio of 1.97 (95% IC: 1.52 to 2.55) for the highest exposure group. This result showed that workers linked to the production sectors of several industries have about twice the risk of developing lung cancer as workers involved in non-industrial activ ities.