RR68 - Cancer risk following exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs): a meta-analysis
Airborne PAH's have long been known to cause cancer in animals and have been widely classified as known human carcinogens. A review of published reports of occupational epidemiological studies quantitatively informative to this relationship was carried out, and a meta-analysis to identify the average and determinants of lung and bladder cancer risk per unit. Relevant peer reviewed reports published up to early 2001 were identified systematically using bibliographic databases. From each study that met the inclusion criteria, unit relative risk was estimated by loglinear poisson regression from published tables of risk against estimated cumulative exposure. Distribution and determinants of unit relative risks (URRs ) were investigated using standard meta-analytic methods. On average the URR for lung cancer was 1.20 but this varied significantly across industries, and for bladder cancer 1.33, with no statistically significant variation by industry or other putative determinants.
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