CANCER IN ILLINOIS CONSTRUCTION WORKERS - A STUDY

A series of case-control studies using subjects from the Illinois Stat e Cancer Registry have been conducted. Logistic regression was used to control for age and history of tobacco and alcohol use. Construction workers were consistently found to be younger than other subjects and to have used alcohol and tobacco more often. Significant positive asso ciations between cancer of the stomach and welding (odds ratio [OR] = 2.11, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.09, 4.09), lung cancer and empl oyment in the construction industry (OR = 1.18, 95% CI = 1.02, 1.26), and lung cancer and welding (OR = 1.68, 95% CI = 1.03, 2.76) were foun d. Significant negative associations between cancer of the colon and w elding (OR = .54, 95% CI = .29, 1.00), cancer of the prostate and empl oyment in the construction industry (OR = .76, 95% CI = .65, .89), can cer of the prostate and plumbing (OR = .44, 95% CI = .38, .50), cancer of the prostate and metal working (OR = .43, 95% CI = .19, .93), and bladder cancer and employment as an electrician (OR = .60, 95% CI = .3 6, 1.00) suggest that construction workers did not consistently experi ence excesses of cancers known to be associated with tobacco use, and an overall excess of sites not known to be related to tobacco use may have occurred. (C) 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.