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Retrospective benzene exposure assessment for a multi-center case-cohort study of benzene-exposed workers in China

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 26, pages 334–340 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Quality of exposure assessment has been shown to be related to the ability to detect risk of lymphohematopoietic disorders in epidemiological investigations of benzene, especially at low levels of exposure. We set out to build a statistical model for reconstructing exposure levels for 2898 subjects from 501 factories that were part of a nested case-cohort study within the NCI-CAPM cohort of more than 110,000 workers. We used a hierarchical model to allow for clustering of measurements by factory, workshop, job, and date. To calibrate the model we used historical routine monitoring data. Measurements below the limit of detection were accommodated by constructing a censored data likelihood. Potential non-linear and industry-specific time-trends and predictor effects were incorporated using regression splines and random effects. A partial validation of predicted exposures in 2004/2005 was performed through comparison with full-shift measurements from an exposure survey in facilities that were still open. Median cumulative exposure to benzene at age 50 for subjects that ever held an exposed job (n=1175) was 509 mg/m3 years. Direct comparison of model estimates with measured full-shift personal exposure in the 2004/2005 survey showed moderate correlation and a potential downward bias at low (<1 mg/m3) exposure estimates. The modeling framework enabled us to deal with the data complexities generally found in studies using historical exposure data in a comprehensive way and we therefore expect to be able to investigate effects at relatively low exposure levels.

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Abbreviations

NCI-CAPM:

Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine

GM:

Geometric Mean

NCI:

National Cancer Institute

1ppm benzene:

3.19 mg/m3 (25 °C, 1 atm).

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Acknowledgements

We are indebted to other members of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention—U.S. National Cancer Institute Benzene Study Group for high-quality data collection over many years. We are grateful for advice and guidance since 2002 from the members of the Organic Solvents (Benzene) and Cancer Working Group including Drs. Ellen Eisen (Chair), David Christiani, Lawrence Fine, Katherine Hammond, Richard Hornung, Noah Seixias, Jack Siemiatycki, and Jennifer West.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Lützen Portengen, Martha S Linet, Gui-Lan Li, Qing Lan, Graça M Dores, Bu-Tian Ji, Richard B Hayes, Song-Nian Yin, Nathaniel Rothman and Roel Vermeulen: See complete list of members of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention—U.S. National Cancer Institute Benzene Study Group in the Supplemental Material.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Environmental Epidemiology, Department of Molecular Epidemiology and Risk Assessment, Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Lützen Portengen & Roel Vermeulen

  2. Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, Radiation Epidemiology Branch, National Cancer Institute, NIH, DHHS, Rockville, Maryland, USA

    Martha S Linet & Graça M Dores

  3. Institute of Occupational Health and Injuries, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China

    Gui-Lan Li & Song-Nian Yin

  4. Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch, National Cancer Institute, NIH, DHHS, Rockville, Maryland, USA

    Qing Lan, Bu-Tian Ji & Nathaniel Rothman

  5. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA

    Graça M Dores

  6. Division of Epidemiology, Department of Environmental Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA

    Richard B Hayes

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  1. Lützen Portengen
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on behalf of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention—U.S. National Cancer Institute Benzene Study Group

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Roel Vermeulen.

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The authors declare no conflict of interests.

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Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology website

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Portengen, L., Linet, M., Li, GL. et al. Retrospective benzene exposure assessment for a multi-center case-cohort study of benzene-exposed workers in China. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 26, 334–340 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2015.44

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