ELECTRICAL OCCUPATIONS AND NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASE - ANALYSIS OF USMORTALITY DATA

Investigators have hypothesized that occupations involving electric an d magnetic field exposure are associated with a variety of health prob lems, including neurological disease. The authors conducted a case-con trol study, and they used U.S. death certificates with occupational co ding to compare male cases of Alzheimer's disease (n= 256), Parkinson' s disease (n = 168), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (n = 114) with controls matched for age and calendar time. The authors selected contr ols in a 3:1 ratio to cases from persons who died of causes other than leukemia, brain cancer, and breast cancer. Overall associations with electrical occupations were modest (i.e., adjusted odds ratios of 1.2, 1.1, and 1.3 for Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and amyotr ophic lateral sclerosis, respectively). Individual electrical occupati ons were associated more strongly with disease than overall electrical occupations, particularly amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, for which re lative risks ranged from 2 to 5 across several job categories. The lar gest associations with all three diseases occurred for power plant ope rators.