Lung cancer risk among workers in the construction industry: results from two case–control studies in Montreal

BMC Public Health

Table 3 Odds ratios between lung cancer and selected chemical agents in analyses restricted to construction workers, in the pooled set of studies

Chemical agent^a	Never exposed Ca/Co^c	Ever Exposed			Substantially Exposed^b
Chemical agent^a	Never exposed Ca/Co^c	Ca/Co^d	OR^e	95 % CI^f	Ca/Co	OR	95 % CI
Inorganic insulation dust	272/204	142/117	0.9	0.7–1.2	50/33	1.1	0.6–2.0
Soil dust	237/171	177/150	1.1	0.9–1.5	76/32	1.9	1.1–3.4
Asbestos	292/224	122/97	1.2	0.9–1.5	25/12	1.9	0.8–4.6
Crystalline silica	170/159	244/162	1.2	0.9–1.5	71/37	1.7	1.0–3.0
Portland cement	283/215	131/106	1.1	0.8–1.4	52/27	1.7	0.9–3.2
Glass fibers	346/276	68/45	1.1	0.8–1.5	14/10	1.0	0.4–2.8
Brick dust	347/268	67/53	1.1	0.8–1.6	18/9	1.4	0.5–3.6
Concrete dust	235/155	179/166	0.9	0.7–1.2	69/48	0.9	0.5–1.5
Mineral wool fibers	298/233	116/88	1.1	0.8–1.4	29/21	1.2	0.5–2.5
Calcium oxide	352/277	62/44	1.1	0.8–1.6	36/18	2.0	1.0–4.2
Calcium sulfate	227/187	187/134	1.2	0.9–1.5	76/44	1.5	0.9–2.5
Calcium carbonate	320/230	94/91	1.0	0.8–1.4	27/19	1.2	0.6–2.6
Wood dust	204/141	210/180	0.9	0.7–1.1	86/58	0.8	0.5–1.3
Hydrogen chloride	352/256	62/65	0.8	0.6–1.1	10/10	0.6	0.2–1.6
Soldering fumes	364/271	50/50	0.9	0.6–1.2	18/18	0.7	0.3–1.5
Liquid fuel combustion products	369/279	45/42	0.9	0.6–1.3	12/19	0.4	0.2–1.0
Propane combustion products	372/288	42/33	1.3	0.8–1.9	8/8	1.1	0.3–3.7
Turpentine	381/301	33/20	1.2	0.8–2.0	17/11	1.1	0.4–2.9
Asphalt	374/277	40/44	0.7	0.5–1.1	14/16	0.4	0.2–1.0
Coal tar and pitch	387/297	27/24	0.8	0.5–1.4	12/5	1.4	0.4–5.2

^aCriteria for selection of chemical agents: at least ten cases or ten controls with substantial exposure in the pooled studies; prevalence of exposure greater than 5 % among construction workers; and prevalence among controls at least twice as high in construction workers as in other workers
^bSubstantial exposure comprised subjects who had been exposed with a probable or definite reliability to medium or high concentrations for more than 5 % of their workweek and for at least 5 years
^cFor each chemical agent, the reference category consists of construction workers who were never exposed to the agent
^dNumber of cases/number of controls
^eOR Odds ratio adjusted for age, median family income for census tract, comprehensive smoking index, respondent status, education level and ethnicity and binary indicator for study
^f95 % confidence interval

ISSN: 1471-2458