Occupational Exposure to Benzene and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma in a Population-Based Cohort: The Shanghai Women’s Health Study

• Published in: Environmental health perspectives Vol. 123; no. 10; pp. 971 - 977
• Main Authors: Bassig, Bryan A., Friesen, Melissa C., Vermeulen, Roel, Shu, Xiao-Ou, Purdue, Mark P., Stewart, Patricia A., Xiang, Yong-Bing, Chow, Wong-Ho, Zheng, Tongzhang, Ji, Bu-Tian, Yang, Gong, Linet, Martha S., Hu, Wei, Zhang, Heping, Zheng, Wei, Gao, Yu-Tang, Rothman, Nathaniel, Lan, Qing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences 01.10.2015; NLM-Export
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Assessments; Benzene; Benzene - analysis; Cancer; Care and treatment; China - epidemiology; Classification; Cohort analysis; Disease; Employment; Exposure; Factories; Female; Hazards; Health; Health aspects; Health risk assessment; Human exposure; Humans; Hydrocarbons; Leukemia; Lymphoma; Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin - chemically induced; Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin - epidemiology; Middle Aged; Non-Hodgkin's lymphomas; Occupational; Occupational Diseases - chemically induced; Occupational Diseases - epidemiology; Occupational Exposure; Occupational health; Population; Prospective Studies; Questionnaires; Risk; Risk Assessment; Risk factors; Studies; Women; Women's Health; Womens health; Workers; China; Maryland; China, People's Rep., Shanghai
• ISSN: 0091-6765; 1552-9924
• DOI: 10.1289/ehp.1408307

The association between benzene exposure and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) has been the subject of debate as a result of inconsistent epidemiologic evidence. An International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) working group evaluated benzene in 2009 and noted evidence for a positive association between benzene exposure and NHL risk. We evaluated the association between occupational benzene exposure and NHL among 73,087 women enrolled in the prospective population-based Shanghai Women's Health Study. Benzene exposure estimates were derived using a previously developed exposure assessment framework that combined ordinal job-exposure matrix intensity ratings with quantitative benzene exposure measurements from an inspection database of Shanghai factories collected between 1954 and 2000. Associations between benzene exposure metrics and NHL (n = 102 cases) were assessed using Cox proportional hazard models, with study follow-up occurring from December 1996 through December 2009. Women ever exposed to benzene had a significantly higher risk of NHL [hazard ratio (HR) = 1.87, 95% CI: 1.19, 2.96]. Compared with unexposed women, significant trends in NHL risk were observed for increasing years of benzene exposure (p(trend) = 0.006) and increasing cumulative exposure levels (p(trend) = 0.005), with the highest duration and cumulative exposure tertiles having a significantly higher association with NHL (HR = 2.07, 95% CI: 1.07, 4.01 and HR = 2.16, 95% CI: 1.17, 3.98, respectively). Our findings, using a population-based prospective cohort of women with diverse occupational histories, provide additional evidence that occupational exposure to benzene is associated with NHL risk.