Formaldehyde May Cause Some Blood Cancers

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From: Cutz <andrewcutz@...>

Subject: Formaldehyde May Cause Some Blood Cancers, but Risk Drops

over Time (NCI Cancer Bulletin for May 19, 2009)

Formaldehyde May Cause Some Blood Cancers, but Risk Drops over Time

Follow-up data from an ongoing study of U.S. industrial plant workers

exposed to formaldehyde support previous findings of a possible link

between formaldehyde exposure and risk of death from cancers of the

blood and lymphatic system. The latest report by NCI researchers,

which appeared online May 12 in the Journal of the National Cancer

Institute, includes data through 2004, extending the previous

observation period by 10 years.

Since the 1980s, researchers from NCI's Division of Cancer

Epidemiology and Genetics have studied a cohort of 25,619 people who

worked in 10 formaldehyde-using or -producing plants before 1966. The

researchers estimated formaldehyde exposure among the workers by a

number of methods, including the use of monitoring data and

information about individual jobs. Death certificates and the National

Death Index were used to record mortality and the cause of death.

Their analysis showed that, overall, those who were exposed to

formaldehyde had a risk of death from all causes that was similar to

that of the general U.S. population. However, workers with highest

peak exposure to formaldehyde had a statistically significant relative

risk (RR) of 1.37 for death from blood or lymph cancer compared with

those at the lowest level of peak exposure. This represents an excess

risk of death from several specific cancers, including Hodgkin

lymphoma, multiple myeloma, and myeloid leukemia—the type most often

associated with chemical exposure. The observed increase in risk of

death from myeloid leukemia was 1.78, and 1.42 for all leukemias. The

highest level of increased risk of death from myeloid leukemia in this

study occurred early on and has been declining steadily over time.

This pattern could be due to chance, but the investigators note that

similar risk patterns over time have been seen for agents that are

known to cause leukemia relatively soon after exposure.

The relationship was observed only for those who had been exposed to

formaldehyde at the highest level of peak exposure relative to members

of the cohort who had minimal exposure. There were no significant

relationships observed when exposure was classified using

average-intensity or cumulative exposure.

http://www.cancer.gov/ncicancerbulletin/051909/page3#e

SOURCE