Leukaemia, brain tumours and exposure to extremely low frequency magnetic fields: cohort study of Swiss railway employees

Röösli, Martin; Lörtscher, Manfred; Egger, Matthias; Pfluger, Dominik; Schreier, Nadja; Lörtscher, Emanuel; Locher, Peter; Spoerri, Adrian; Minder, Christoph (2007). Leukaemia, brain tumours and exposure to extremely low frequency magnetic fields: cohort study of Swiss railway employees. Occupational and environmental medicine, 64(8), pp. 553-9. London: BMJ Publishing Group 10.1136/oem.2006.030270

[img] Text
Röösli OccupEnvironMed 2007.pdf - Published Version
Restricted to registered users only
Available under License Publisher holds Copyright.

Download (239kB)

AIMS: To investigate the relationship between extremely low frequency magnetic field (ELF-MF) exposure and mortality from leukaemia and brain tumour in a cohort of Swiss railway workers. METHODS: 20,141 Swiss railway employees with 464,129 person-years of follow-up between 1972 and 2002 were studied. Mortality rates for leukaemia and brain tumour of highly exposed train drivers (21 muT average annual exposure) were compared with medium and low exposed occupational groups (i.e. station masters with an average exposure of 1 muT). In addition, individual cumulative exposure was calculated from on-site measurements and modelling of past exposures. RESULTS: The hazard ratio (HR) for leukaemia mortality of train drivers was 1.43 (95% CI 0.74 to 2.77) compared with station masters. For myeloid leukaemia the HR of train drivers was 4.74 (95% CI 1.04 to 21.60) and for Hodgkin's disease 3.29 (95% CI 0.69 to 15.63). Lymphoid leukaemia, non-Hodgkin's disease and brain tumour mortality were not associated with magnetic field exposure. Concordant results were obtained from analyses based on individual cumulative exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Some evidence of an exposure-response association was found for myeloid leukaemia and Hodgkin's disease, but not for other haematopoietic and lymphatic malignancies and brain tumours.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Pre-clinic Human Medicine > Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM)

UniBE Contributor:

Röösli, Martin, Egger, Matthias, Schreier, Nadja, Spörri, Adrian, Minder, Christoph Erwin

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

1351-0711

ISBN:

17525094

Publisher:

BMJ Publishing Group

Language:

English

Submitter:

Factscience Import

Date Deposited:

04 Oct 2013 14:52

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:16

Publisher DOI:

10.1136/oem.2006.030270

PubMed ID:

17525094

Web of Science ID:

000248171600011

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.22118

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/22118 (FactScience: 30470)

Actions (login required)

Edit item Edit item
Provide Feedback