The use of sports references in marketing of food and beverage products in supermarkets.

OBJECTIVE: Food marketing has been identified as a significant driver of the childhood obesity epidemic. The purpose of the present study was to (i) conduct a content analysis of the types of sports references that appear on supermarket food and beverage products and (ii) assess each product's nutritional and marketing profile. DESIGN: This was a descriptive study. Every product featuring sports references on the packaging was purchased in two major supermarkets during 2010. A content analysis was conducted and nutritional evaluations were made based on the Nutrient Profile Model, a validated nutrition model. Marketing data were obtained from The Nielsen Company. SETTING: Two major supermarkets in Connecticut, USA. SUBJECTS: Food and beverage products (n 102) were selected from two supermarkets. RESULTS: The 102 products (fifty-three foods and forty-nine beverages) had sports references as part of their packaging: 72·5 % featured a character exercising, 42·2 % were endorsed by a professional sports entity and 34·0 % were child-targeted. The median nutrition score for food products was 36 (1 = unhealthiest and 100 = healthiest; scores of ≥63 are considered healthy according to this model). More than two-thirds of beverages (69·4 %) were 100 % sugar-sweetened. Children saw significantly more commercials for these products than adults. CONCLUSIONS: Companies place sports figures on food and beverage products that are child-targeted and unhealthy.

A case-cohort study of lung cancer in poultry and control workers: occupational findings.

OBJECTIVES: We conducted a mortality study of members of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union who worked in poultry slaughtering/processing plants, and controls. Excess deaths from cancer at 11 different cancer sites including lung cancer were observed in the poultry workers. The study described here is a pilot case-cohort study of lung cancer nested within the cohort to examine if it is possible, in a larger study to be conducted later, to identify specific potentially carcinogenic occupational exposures in poultry workers. METHODS: Subjects or the next of kin of deceased subjects were interviewed by phone. Logistic regression ORs and Cox proportional HRs were estimated. RESULTS: Elevated risks for poultry exposure were recorded for subjects who (1) killed chickens at work (OR 4.2, 95% CI 1.2 to 14.7; HR 1.8, 95% CI 1.0 to 3.3) and (2) ever had direct contact with chicken blood at work (OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.0 to 3.8; HR 1.3, 95% CI 0.9 to 2.0). These activities are associated with high exposure to oncogenic viruses. CONCLUSION: These results may have important public health implications, since the general population is also exposed to these viruses. Elevated risks were observed for non-poultry-related occupational exposures such as working in a stockyard, working in a chemical plant, use of chemicals to kill moulds, and working in plants where plastic products were manufactured. These preliminary findings indicate that full scale epidemiological studies of adequate statistical power are needed to examine the role of occupational exposures in cancer occurrence in poultry workers.

Update of cancer and non-cancer mortality in the Missouri poultry cohort.

BACKGROUND: workers in poultry slaughtering and processing plants have one of the highest human exposures to transmissible agents that cause cancer and other diseases in chickens and turkeys, and also have other occupational carcinogenic exposures. The general population is also exposed to these transmissible agents. METHODS: we investigated mortality in workers who belong to a poultry union in Missouri, and estimated standardized mortality ratios. RESULTS: significantly increased mortality was observed for some leukemias, benign neoplasms, thyroid diseases, bacterial infections, and schizophrenic disorders. The risk of breast cancer and several non-cancer conditions was significantly depressed. CONCLUSION: the findings add to the growing evidence suggesting that workers occupationally exposed to transmissible agents and carcinogens in the poultry industry, are at increased risk of dying from certain chronic diseases, including cancer.

A pilot case-cohort study of liver and pancreatic cancers in poultry workers.

PURPOSE: To test the hypothesis that exposure to poultry oncogenic viruses that widely occurs occupationally in poultry workers and in the general population, may be associated with increased risks of deaths from liver and pancreatic cancers, and to identify new risk factors. METHODS: A pilot case-cohort study of both cancers within a combined cohort of 30,411 highly exposed poultry workers and 16,408 control subjects was conducted, and risk assessed by logistic regression odds ratios (OR) and proportional hazards risk ratios. RESULTS: New occupational findings were recorded respectively for pancreatic/liver cancers, for slaughtering of poultry (OR = 8.9, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.7-29.3)/OR = 9.1, 95% CI: 1.9-42.9); catching of live chickens (OR = 3.6, 95% CI: 1.2-10.9)/OR = 1.0, 95% CI: 0.1-8.5); killing other types of animals for food (OR = 4.8, 95% CI: 1.5-16.6)/OR = 2.0, 95% CI: 0.2-18.2), and ever worked on a pig raising farm (OR = 3.0, 95% CI: 1.0-8.2) for pancreatic cancer only. New non-occupational findings for liver cancer were for receiving immunization with yellow fever vaccine (OR = 8.7, 95% CI: 1.0-76.3); and vaccination with typhoid vaccine (OR = 6.3, 95% CI: 1.1-37.4). The study also confirmed previously reported risk factors for both diseases. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides preliminary evidence that exposure to poultry oncogenic viruses may possibly be associated with the occurrence of liver and pancreatic cancers. Case-control studies nested within occupational cohorts of highly exposed subjects of sufficient statistical power may provide an efficient and valid method of investigating/confirming these findings.