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Friday, February 18, 2005
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women with jobs that involve metalworking fluids may
have a somewhat higher risk of developing breast cancer, a preliminary study
suggests.
Metalworking fluids help cool and lubricate machinery used in the manufacture of
automobiles, farm equipment, aircraft and other products. The new study looked
at women who spent at least three years working at one of three large automobile
manufacturing plants in the U.S.
Among the nearly 4,700 women that researchers followed, the risk of breast
cancer increased in tandem with exposure to soluble, oil-based metalworking
fluids, but not to two other classes of the fluids.
"This preliminary investigation revealed weak evidence of an association between
lifetime cumulative exposure to soluble metalworking fluids and breast cancer
risk," conclude Dr. Deborah Thompson of the Massachusetts Department of Public
Health and her colleagues.
Their report is published in the February issue of the American Journal of
Industrial Medicine.
The findings, say the researchers, warrant further study, but they also urge
"cautious interpretation of the results" due to the limits of their research --
including a lack of information on the women's other risk factors for breast
cancer.
Metalworking fluids have been linked to health problems before, with research
suggesting they raise the risk of respiratory problems and cancers of the lung,
throat, pancreas, stomach and rectum.
The fluids come in three main classes: so-called straight oils, which are
refined from mineral oil; soluble fluids, which consist of oils emulsified in
water; and synthetic fluids, which are water-based and contain no mineral oil.
According to Thompson's team, there are several potentially toxic components to
metalworking fluids. In the early 1980s, they note, the International Agency for
Research on Cancer classified the mineral oils found in straight and soluble
fluids as skin-cancer-promoting substances, due to their levels of polyaromatic
hydrocarbons. Since then, these compounds have been largely removed from the
fluids, though small quantities may still be present.
The current study included 4,680 women who had worked at an automobile
manufacturing plant for at least three years between 1941 and 1985. They were
followed through 1994 or until their deaths.
Overall, Thompson's team found 99 cases of breast cancer among the women. In
general, those with breast cancer had a history of greater exposure to straight
or soluble metalworking fluids than women who did not develop the disease.
Further analysis showed that it was exposure to soluble metalworking fluids in
the 10 years before diagnosis that was most clearly associated with breast
cancer. The risk also appeared to be "concentrated" among women who developed
the disease before the age of 51, according to the researchers. However, they
add, this particular finding is based on only a small number of women.
A weakness of the study, the authors note, is that it lacked information on
other breast cancer risk factors among the women.
"Additional studies of metalworking fluids and breast cancer, with data on known
breast cancer risk factors, are warranted," they write.
Identifying which components of metalworking fluids are toxic "will always be
difficult," Thompson and her colleagues point out, because the mixtures are
complex and change frequently to meet companies' needs.
It's estimated that about 1 million U.S. workers are exposed to metalworking
fluids, the compositions of which vary widely depending on the individual
manufacturing plant.
SOURCE: American Journal of Industrial Medicine, February 2005.
Source :
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_23083.html