Cancer risk ‘higher’ for PC factory workers

Workers at computer factories may have an increased risk of cancer, a new study claims.

Over 30,000 deaths of workers who had been employed at IBM factories in the USA for at least five years between 1969 and 2001 were analysed by Dr Richard Clapp of the Boston University school of public health.

Dr Clapp argues that the workers were more likely to die from cancer, including brain, kidney, breast and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, than the rest of the population.

The data was obtained from the IBM corporation as part of a lawsuit against the company, with the plaintiffs’ attorneys contracting Dr Clapp to carry out the analysis.

An overall excess mortality for all cancers in males and females was found in the entire corporate mortality data.

Dr Clapp argues that the proportional mortality ratio (PMR) of the IBM workers was “significantly elevated” in comparison to the general population.

The nature of the cancers changed between 1969 and 2001, for example lung cancer mortality increased “dramatically” in US females while cervical cancer deaths decreased.

Dr Clapp wrote: “The excesses of some cancers were greater in the younger age groups and in the 1970s and 1980s rather than the latter years of the study period.”

Workers employed in manufacturing saw particular increases; for males there was “consistent increased mortality” from cancer of digestive organs, kidney, skin, brain and the central nervous system and for women there was a slightly elevated number of deaths due to breast cancer.

Although based on few deaths, women also had “significantly elevated” PMRs for kidney cancer and lymphatic and hematopoietic tissue malignancies.

The findings are published in the journal Environmental Health.