ID Number		1890
Study Type		Epidemiology
Model		ALS, Alzheimer Disease and brain cancer in occupationally exposed adults (meta-analysis).
Details		Adult leukemia and brain tumor cases from 20 and 21 separate reports, respectively, were evaluated for overall associations with occupational exposure to ELF. The authors report a 10% increased risk for brain tumours and 13% increased risk for leukaemia, although the new estimates tended to be lower than the old estimates. AUTHORS' ABSTRACT: Vergara, Mezei and Kheifets 2015 (IEEE #5993): We investigated the relationship between occupational exposure to electric shocks (ES) and magnetic fields (MF) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) using 1991-1999 US mortality data. For each of the 5886 included ALS deaths, 10 controls-matched on sex-, age-, year- and region-were selected from among other deaths. Usual occupation as reported on death certificates was linked to job-exposure matrices for ES and MF. Education and electric occupations were associated with moderately increased ALS risks (odds ratio (OR)=1.85, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.67, 2.04; OR=1.23, 95% CI=1.04, 1.47, respectively). For ES, ALS mortality OR were 0.73 (95% CI=0.67, 0.79) for high and 0.90 (95% CI=0.84, 0.97) for medium exposure compared with low exposure. For MF, ALS ORs were 1.09 (95% CI=1.00, 1.19) for high and 1.09 (95% CI=0.96, 1.23) for medium exposure as compared with low exposure. For electric occupations, ALS ORs were insensitive to adjustments for ES, MF or both. Consistent with previous publications, an association between electric occupations and ALS was observed. Findings do not support occupational exposure to ES or MF as an explanation. AUTHORS' ABSTRACT: Vergara, Kheifets, Mezei et al. 2013 (IEEE #5994): OBJECTIVE: Previous studies reported associations of occupational electric and magnetic fields (MF) with neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs). Results differ between studies using proxy exposure based on occupational titles and estimated MF levels. We conducted a meta-analysis of occupational MF NDD, primarily Alzheimer disease (AD), and motor neuron diseases (MNDs) studies. METHODS: We identified 42 peer-reviewed publications and focused our analysis on study characteristics, exposure metrics, and publication bias. RESULTS: We found weak associations for occupational MF exposure proxies with AD and MND. Motor neuron disease risk was associated with occupational titles, whereas AD risk was associated with estimated MF levels. Results varied in study design, with dissimilar variation across diseases. CONCLUSIONS: Our results do not support MF as the explanation for observed associations between occupational titles and MND. Disease misclassification, particularly for AD, and imprecise exposure assessment affected most studies.
Findings		No Effects
Status		Completed With Publication
Principal Investigator		Electric Power Research Institute, California - gmezei@epri.com
Funding Agency		Private/Instit.
Country		UNITED STATES
References		Kheifets, L et al. J Occup Environ Med, (2008) 50:677-688 Vergara, X et al. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol., (2015) 25:65-71 Vergara, X et al. J Occup Environ Med., (2013) 55:135-146 Vinceti, M et al. Amyotroph Lateral Scler Frontotemporal Degener., (2017) 18:583-589
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