Cancer mortality in workers employed in cattle, pigs, and sheep slaughtering and processing plants

• Published in: Environment international Vol. 37; no. 5; pp. 950 - 959
• Main Author: Johnson, E.S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.07.2011; Elsevier
• Subjects: Abattoirs; Abattoirs - statistics & numerical data; Animals; Beef, pork, mutton, meat; Biological and medical sciences; Bones; Cancer; Carcinogens; Carcinogens - analysis; Carcinogens - toxicity; Cattle; Cohort Studies; Environmental pollutants toxicology; Exposure; Female; Food Safety; Humans; Live animal; Male; Meat; Meat - analysis; Meat - virology; Meat-Packing Industry - statistics & numerical data; Meatpacking; Medical sciences; Mortality; Neoplasms - mortality; Occupational Diseases - mortality; Occupational Exposure - statistics & numerical data; Oncogenic viruses; Oncogenic Viruses - pathogenicity; Risk Factors; Sheep, Domestic - virology; Slaughter; Swine - virology; Toxicology; Tumor Virus Infections - mortality; Tumor Virus Infections - transmission; Viruses; United States; North America; America; Beef, pork, mutton, meat; Meatpacking; Live animal; Slaughter; Oncogenic viruses; Occupational exposure; Epidemiology; Meat; Health and environment; Swine; Food industry; Worker; Agriculture; Ungulata; Public health; Slaughterhouse; Food; Meat wrapper; Human; Farming animal; Mortality; Industrial plant; Malignant tumor; Pig; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Oncogenic virus; Sheep; Livestock; Artiodactyla; Occupational medicine; Cancer

We studied mortality in two separate cohorts of workers in abattoirs (N=4996) and meat processing plants (N=3642) belonging to a meatcutters' union, because they were exposed to viruses that cause cancer in food animals, and also to chemical carcinogens at work. Standardized mortality ratios (S...