BRAIN CANCER AND OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE TO LEAD

A recent report in the literature suggested a link between occupationa l exposure to lend and brain cancer. To explore the hypothesis, we app lied a job-exposure matrix for lead to the occupation and industry cod es given on the death certificate of 27,060 brain cancer cases and 108 ,240 controls who died of non-malignant diseases in 24 US states in 19 84-1992, Brain cancer risk increased by probability of exposure to len d among Caucasian men and women with high-level exposure, with a signi ficant twofold excess among Caucasian men with high probability and hi gh level of exposure to lend (odds ratio = 2.1; 95 % confidence interv al, 1.1-4.0), Risks were also elevated in the low- and medium-probabil ity cells for African-American men with high-level exposure to lead. T rend by intensity level was statistically significant among African-Am erican men (all probabilities combined), Although exposure assessment was based solely on the occupation and industry reported on the death certificate, these results add to other epidemiologic and experimental findings in lending some support to the hypothesis of an association between occupational exposure to lead and brain cancer risk. Analytic studies are warranted to further test this hypothesis.