A CASE-CONTROL STUDY OF LUNG-CANCER MORTALITY IN 4 RURAL ARIZONA SMELTER TOWNS

To investigate factors related to lung cancer mortality in four Arizon a copper-smelter towns, the authors identified 142 lung cancer cases a nd 2 matched controls per case from decedent residents during 1979-199 0. The authors obtained detailed information on lifetime residential, occupational, and smoking histories via structured telephone interview s with knowledgeable informants. The authors linked estimated historic al environmental exposures to smelter emissions (based on atmospheric diffusion modeling of measured sulfur dioxide concentrations) with res idential histories to derive individual profiles of residential exposu re. The results of this study provided little evidence of a positive a ssociation between lung cancer and residential exposure to smelter emi ssions. Conditional logistic regression analysis revealed a statistica lly significant positive association between lung cancer and reported employment in copper mines and/or smelters, although specific factors associated with the apparently increased risk among these workers coul d not be identified in this community-based study.