Table 4.16 Epidemiological studies of lung cancer with full-shift measurements of magnetic fields

Reference;
type of study,
country
Study population
Exposure
classification
Lung cancer risks
Comments
No.
of cases
OR
(95% CI)
(Thériault
et al.,
1994);
case-control,
Canada and France		 Male utility workers in 3 large companies; cohort of 223292 employees; 4151 cancer cases; 6106 controls. Cumulative exposure from job history and JEM based on magnetic field measurements of 2066 workers
Cumulative TWA magnetic fields
> median > 3.1 µT-years 450 0.92 (0.70-1.2)
> 90th percentile 93 1.0 (0.67-1.5)
 OR, adjusted for social class
(Armstrong
et al.,
1994);
case-control,
Quebec (Canada)
and France		 Male utility workers in 2 large companies: base population of about 192 000 workers; 508 lung cancer cases and 508 controls. Cumulative exposures from job histories and JEM of PEMF measurements on 1295 workers.
Cumulative PEMF* exposure
> median 308 1.3 (0.96-1.7)
> 90th percentile
(>16 µT-years)		 84 3.1 (1.6-6.0)
OR, adjusted for social class
PEMF sensor found to be sensitive to radio transmission as well as shocks from electric lines.
(Savitz
et al.,
1997);
cohort,
USA 		Male utility workers in 5 large companies: base population of 138,905 workers; 20,733 worker deaths. Cumulative exposures from job histories and JEMs for magnetic fields (Savitz & Loomis, 1995) and PEMF (Armstrong et al., 1994)
60 Hz exposure:
0.7-2.3 µT-year
(2-10 year lag)		 302 1.3 (1.1-1.6)
0.9-2.9 µT-year
(10-20 year lag)		 429 1.2 (1.0-1.4)
2-14.6 µT-year
(> 20 year lag)		 243 1.3 (1.0-1.5)
highest pulsed MF exposures
5.4-11.9 µT-year 401 1.3 (1.1-1.6)
11.9-41.2 µT-year 196 1.4 (1.1-1.7)
 SMR with US population as reference, PMR with comparison between exposure categories for more common cancers
RR, relative risk; CI, confidence interval; SIR, standardized incidence ratio; OR, odds ratio; TWA, time-weighted average; JEM, job-exposure matrix; PEMF, pulsed EMF; nominally 5-20 Mhz; SMR, standardized mortality ratio; PMR, proportional incidence ratio