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NEW YORK, Mar 20 (Reuters Health) - Dry-cleaning workers have at greater risk of dying from certain types of cancer compared with people in the general population, researchers report.
"This update reports on additional risks (such as)...increased risk of tongue, lung and cervical cancer, pneumonia, and (reduction of blood flow to the heart in people) exposed only to perchloroethylene," Dr. Avima M. Ruder told Reuters Health in an interview. Ruder, of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Cincinnati, Ohio, and colleagues report their findings in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.
Ruder's team updated statistics through 1996 and conducted analyses for a group of 1,708 dry-cleaning workers. The workers had been previously identified as having been exposed to the dry-cleaning chemical perchloroethylene (PCE), "a known animal carcinogen and probable human carcinogen." Many had also been exposed to Stoddard solvent, a petroleum-based dry-cleaning solvent.
According to Ruder, the original findings on these workers showed they faced increased risks of bladder cancer and urinary stones. In a 1994 update, the researchers discovered an increased risk of esophageal and intestinal cancer.
In the current study, the investigators found that the dry-cleaning workers had a 25% higher rate of cancer deaths overall compared with the general population.
The 625 study participants exposed only to PCE also had higher rates of diseases such as tongue cancer, ischemic heart disease and urinary calculi, the report indicates.
The researchers also observed a significant excess of esophageal cancer among individuals who had worked only with PCE, for more than 5 years, and who were first exposed at least 20 years before death.
"The results of this study add to the weight of the evidence that solvents used in the dry-cleaning industry are carcinogenic," Ruder and colleagues conclude.
"NIOSH recommends that exposure to perchloroethylene be reduced to the lowest feasible limit. This is a long-standing policy," Ruder told Reuters Health.
SOURCE: American Journal of Industrial Medicine 2001;39:121-132.
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