To determine whether workers in Ontario who had been exposed to silica dust and who have radiographic abnormalities are at increased risk of lung cancer.
Cohort and case-control studies of rates of death from lung cancer and cancer incidence rates; data were obtained from the Ontario Silicosis Surveillance Registry. Follow-up was through linkage to the Ontario mortality and cancer registries.
Ontario.
A total of 523 workers with radiographic abnormalities and 1568 control subjects with normal radiographic findings who had been exposed to silica dust. Matching criteria were year of birth and the requirement that the control subject have a normal radiographic finding either later than or in the same year that the radiographic abnormality was identified in the silicosis subject.
Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs), standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) and odds ratios for lung cancer.
In the cohort analysis, with the Ontario population rates as reference, the all-cause SMR was 0.96 among the workers with radiographic abnormalities and 0.51 among the control subjects. The corresponding SIRs for lung cancer were 2.49 and 0.87 (p
Notes
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Comment In: CMAJ. 1995 May 15;152(10):1583; author reply 15847605472