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The Diesel Exhaust in Miners Study (DEMS) II: Temporal Factors Related to Diesel Exhaust Exposure and Lung Cancer Mortality in the Nested Case–Control Study

D. Silverman, B. Bassig, J. Lubin, B. Graubard, Aaron M. Blair, R. Vermeulen, M. Attfield, Nathan Appel et al.

Environmental Health Perspectives, 2023

10 citations

Abstract

Background: The Diesel Exhaust in Miners Study (DEMS) was an important contributor to the International Agency for Research on Cancer reclassification of diesel exhaust as a Group I carcinogen and subsequent risk assessment. We extended the DEMS cohort follow-up by 18 y and the nested case–control study to include all newly identified lung cancer deaths and matched controls (DEMS II), nearly doubling the number of lung cancer deaths. Objective: Our purpose was to characterize the exposure–response relationship with a focus on the effects of timing of exposure and exposure cessation. Methods: We conducted a case–control study of lung cancer nested in a cohort of 12,315 workers in eight nonmetal mines (376 lung cancer deaths, 718 controls). Controls were selected from workers who were alive when the case died, individually matched on mine, sex, race/ethnicity, and birth year (within 5 y). Based on an extensive historical exposure assessment, we estimated respirable elemental carbon (REC), an index of diesel exposure, for each cohort member. Odds ratios (ORs) were estimated by conditional regression analyses controlling for smoking and other confounders. To evaluate time windows of exposure, we evaluated the joint OR patterns for cumulative REC within each of four preselected exposure time windows, <5, 5–9, 10–19, and ≥20 y prior to death/reference date, and we evaluated the interaction of cumulative exposure across time windows under additive and multiplicative forms for the…

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Evidence Hub reads this as a cohort study. Its evidence level is 3 of 5 (Moderate · trial / cohort / secondary analysis). Trials without a large randomized design, cohorts and secondary analyses give moderate evidence.

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