Cancer in phenoxy herbicide manufacturing workers in Denmark, 1947–87—an update

This report is an update of a cohort study from the two Danish phenoxy herbicide manufacturing plants. The study originally covered the period 1947–82. Data now have been added for the period 1983–87. In 1943–87, the 940 phenoxy herbicide manufacturing and packaging workers experienced the same overall cancer incidence as the Danish population (observed Obs]=66; expected Exp]=64.27; standardized incidence ratio SIR]=1.0; 95 percent confidence interval CI]=0.8–1.3). The same was true for the 1,179 workers employed in manual service functions. The data for 1947–82 included five cases of soft tissue sarcoma (STS). One of these patients had his diagnosis changed when he died in 1985. One new STS case was diagnosed during the period 1983–87. This updated study thus includes a total of five STS cases. Four of the STS cases were observed among persons potentially exposed to phenoxy herbicide (Exp=1.76; SIR=2.3; CI=0.6–5.8). Three of the cases occurred among men employed for at least one year in one factory. In this subgroup, an SIR of 6.4 (CI=1.3–18.7) was observed when a 10-year latency period was taken into account. Based on small numbers, this Danish study thus continues to add to the evidence for a possible association between phenoxy herbicide exposure and risk of STS. Persons potentially exposed to phenoxy herbicide had an incidence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma close to that of the Danish population (Obs=4; Exp=3.08; SIR=1.3; CI=0.4–3.3).