Lung Cancer Risk: Effect of Dairy Farming and the Consequence of Removing that Occupational Exposure

The aim of this study was to confirm the exposure-dependent reduction in lung cancer risk reported for dairy farmers exposed to endotoxin and to evaluate the consequence of leaving dairy farming and taking employment in industry or services, where exposure to microbial agents is lower. Standardized mortality ratios, with 95 % confi-dence intervals, for 2,561 self-employed dairy farmers were estimated, considering the general population of Veneto, Italy, from 1970 to 1998 as the reference. Sixty-two lung cancer cases, whose information was checked against clinical records, were compared with 333 controls in a cohort-nested case-control study. Odds ratios with 95 % confidence intervals were estimated by logistic regression analysis. A downward trend of standardized mortality ratios for lung cancer across tertiles of number of dairy cattle on the farm was significant (p < 0.05) fro