Occupational Exposure to Magnetic Fields in case-referent Studies of Neurodegenerative Diseases

• Published in: Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment ＆ Health Vol. 28; no. 1; pp. 42 - 48
• Main Authors: Noonan, Curtis W, Reif, John S, Yost, Michael, Touchstone, Jennifer
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Helsinki Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment ＆ Health 01.02.2002; National Institute for Working Life; Finnish Institute of Occupational Health; National Institute of Occupational Health (Denmark); National Institute of Occupational Health (Norway); Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health
• Subjects: Adult; Age Distribution; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Alzheimer Disease - epidemiology; Alzheimer Disease - etiology; Alzheimer's disease; Alzheimers disease; Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis - epidemiology; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis - etiology; Biological and medical sciences; Case control studies; Cohort Studies; Confidence Intervals; Death certificates; Effects of various physical factors on living matter (vibrations, electric field, ultrasound, sound...); Electromagnetic Fields - adverse effects; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Incidence; Job titles; Logistic Models; Magnetic fields; Male; Middle Aged; Nervous system diseases; Neurodegenerative diseases; Neurodegenerative Diseases - epidemiology; Neurodegenerative Diseases - etiology; neurodenegerative diseases; Occupational Exposure - adverse effects; Occupations; Odds Ratio; Parkinson disease; Parkinson Disease - epidemiology; Parkinson Disease - etiology; Parkinson's disease; Reference Values; Registries; Risk Assessment; Risk Factors; Sex Distribution; Survival Rate; Tissues, organs and organisms biophysics; United States - epidemiology; United States; North America; Colorado; America; job-exposure matrix; Parkinson's disease; Alzheimer's disease; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; electrical occupations; Human; Job exposure matrix; Nervous system diseases; Alzheimer disease; Toxicity; Parkinson disease; Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Occupational exposure; Epidemiology; Cerebral disorder; Electric field; Central nervous system disease; Degenerative disease; Electromagnetic field; Biological effect; Magnetic field; Occupational medicine
• ISSN: 0355-3140; 1795-990X
• DOI: 10.5271/sjweh.645

Objectives Case-referent studies of Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and Parkinson's disease were conducted to explore the relationship between these neurodegenerative diseases and occupational exposure to magnetic fields. Three methods of exposure assessment were used for the comparison, and the consistency of findings between these approaches was evaluated. Methods Separate case-referent sets were formed from among recorded deaths of males in the state of Colorado for the years 1987 through 1996. The following three methods of exposure assessment were used: a dichotomous grouping of electrical versus nonelectrical occupations, a three-tiered grouping of potential magnetic-field exposure based on a combination of job title and industry, and categories of exposure based on the means of the magnetic fields estimated from a job-exposure matrix. Results A positive association was observed for Parkinson's disease with all the methods of magnetic-field exposure assessment, the odds ratio (OR) for the highest category in the job-exposure matrix being 1.50 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.02-2.19]. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis was associated with a history of electrical occupations (OR 2.30, 95% CI 1.29-4.09) but not with magnetic-field exposure as estimated by the job-exposure matrix. No consistent associations with magnetic fields were observed for Alzheimer's disease. Conclusions This study provides some support for an association between occupational magnetic-field exposure and Parkinson's disease, but the findings are novel and require replication. Associations with the other neurodegenerative diseases were inconsistent and dependent on the method of exposure assessment.