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Occupation as a welder has been associated with a 25%-40% increase in lung cancer risk. This study aims to elucidate to what extent confounding by smoking and asbestos drives this association and to evaluate the role of welding-related exposures such as chromium. The study included 2,197 male incident lung cancer cases and 2,295 controls from Romania, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and the United Kingdom from 1998 to 2001. Information on risk factors was collected through face-to-face interviews. Experts assessed exposure to 70 agents, and risk estimates were adjusted for smoking and occupational exposures. Occupation as a welder/flame cutter (prevalence controls: 3.7%) was associated with an odds ratio of 1.36 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.00, 1.86) after adjustment for smoking and occupational exposures including asbestos. An odds ratio of 1.18 (95% CI: 1.01, 1.38) was found for welding fumes (prevalence controls: 22.8%), increasing to 1.38 for more than 25 exposure years (95% CI: 1.09, 1.75). A duration-response association was also observed for mild steel welding without chromium exposure. In this population, occupational exposure to welding fumes accounted for approximately 4% of lung cancer cases, to which both stainless and mild steel welding contributed equally. Given that welding remains a common task for many workers, exposure to welding fumes represents an important risk factor for lung cancer. © The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All rights reserved.

Persons with a history of eczema have been shown to have a reduced risk of lung cancer, but the evidence has been inconclusive because of the small size of previous studies and their limited ability to control for confounding by smoking. The objective of this study was to determine the role of eczema in relation to lung cancer while overcoming the limitations of previous investigations. Study subjects included 2,854 cases and 3,116 population and hospital controls recruited during 1998-2001 from 16 areas in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom. Odds ratios were calculated for self-reported history of eczema via multivariate logistic regression modeling. The odds ratio for a history of eczema was 0.61 (95% confidence interval: 0.48, 0.76) after control for age, sex, study center, and cumulative tobacco smoking. There was no heterogeneity in the results by sex or age at onset of eczema. Subjects reporting use of medication for eczema had a lower odds ratio than subjects not reporting such use. This study provides further evidence for an inverse association between history of eczema and lung cancer risk, which is unlikely to be due to chance, bias, or confounding. Copyright © 2005 by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All rights reserved.

Exposure to fuel from cooking and heating has not been studied in Europe, where lung cancer rates are high and many residents have had a long tradition of burning coal and unprocessed biomass. Study subjects included 2,861 cases and 3,118 controls recruited during 1998-2002 in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom. The odds ratio of lung cancer associated with solid fuel use was 1.22 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.04, 1.44) for cooking or heating, 1.37 (95% CI: 0.90, 2.09) for solid fuel only for cooking, and 1.24 (95% CI: 1.05, 1.47) for solid fuels used for both cooking and heating. Risk increased relative to the percentage of time that solid fuel was used for cooking (p(trend) < 0.0001), while no risk increase was detected for solid fuel used for heating. The odds ratio of lung cancer in whole-life users of solid cooking fuel was 1.80 (95% CI: 1.35, 2.40). Switching to nonsolid fuels resulted in a decrease in risk. The odds ratio for the longest duration of time since switching was 0.76 (95% CI: 0.63, 0.92). The data suggest a modest increased risk of lung cancer related to solid-fuel use for cooking rather than heating.

The authors have calculated cumulative risks of lung cancer from a case-control study conducted between 1998 and 2002 involving 2,633 lung cancer cases and 2,884 controls in Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, and Russia. The odds ratios for smoking history were combined with national lung cancer mortality rates to obtain the cumulative risk of lung cancer. The cumulative risk of death from lung cancer by the age of 75 years among current male smokers was 14.6% in Romania and Russia and 15.8% in Poland, similar to levels reported in Western Europe, although higher risks were found in the Czech Republic (19.8%), Hungary (21.9%), and Slovakia (28.2%). Cumulative risks of lung cancer death among never smokers of over 1% were observed in Hungary among both men and women and among men in Poland. The effect of quitting smoking on the lifetime cumulative risk was substantial, with between 67% and 83% of lung cancer risk among men being avoided by quitting before the age of 50 years. This substantial reduction in risk among former smokers confirms that lung cancer mortality in Central Europe over the next three decades will be determined by the extent to which current smokers can successfully quit smoking. Copyright © 2006 by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health All rights reserved.

Exposure to fuel from cooking and heating has not been studied in Europe, where lung cancer rates are high and many residents have had a long tradition of burning coal and unprocessed biomass. Study subjects included 2,861 cases and 3,118 controls recruited during 1998-2002 in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom. The odds ratio of lung cancer associated with solid fuel use was 1.22 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.04, 1.44) for cooking or heating, 1.37 (95% CI: 0.90, 2.09) for solid fuel only for cooking, and 1.24 (95% CI: 1.05, 1.47) for solid fuels used for both cooking and heating. Risk increased relative to the percentage of time that solid fuel was used for cooking (p(trend)0.0001), while no risk increase was detected for solid fuel used for heating. The odds ratio of lung cancer in whole-life users of solid cooking fuel was 1.80 (95% CI: 1.35, 2.40). Switching to nonsolid fuels resulted in a decrease in risk. The odds ratio for the longest duration of time since switching was 0.76 (95% CI: 0.63, 0.92). The data suggest a modest increased risk of lung cancer related to solid-fuel use for cooking rather than heating.

The authors conducted a case-control study in Comunidad Valenciana, Spain, to assess the relation between occupational exposure to pesticides, mainly as a result of agricultural work, and the prevalence of congenital malformations. A total of 261 cases and 261 controls were selected from those infants born in eight public hospitals during 1993-1994. The cases were those who were diagnosed with selected defects (nervous system, cardiovascular, oral clefts, hypospadias/epispadias, musculoskeletal, and unspecified anomalies) during their first year of life. Information on occupational exposures and potential confounding variables was collected from the parents. For the mothers who were involved in agricultural activities during the month before conception and the first trimester of pregnancy, the adjusted odds ratio was 3.16 (95% confidence interval 1.11-9.01) primarily due to an increased risk for nervous system defects, oral clefts, and multiple anomalies. Paternal agricultural work did not increase the risk, although fathers who reported ever handling pesticides had an adjusted odds ratio of 1.49 (95% confidence interval 0.94-2.35) mainly related to an increased risk for nervous system and musculoskeletal defects. Although the power of this study regarding some associations is limited, the results justify further attention to maternal agricultural work and paternal pesticide exposure.