Alkylphenolic compounds and risk of breast and prostate cancer in the MCC-Spain study.

BACKGROUND: Alkylphenolic compounds are chemicals with endocrine disrupting properties that have been widely used in industry with important changes in their usage over time. Few epidemiologic studies have evaluated the effect of alkylphenolic compounds on human health. OBJECTIVES: We investigated whether occupational exposure to alkylphenolic compounds is associated with breast and prostate cancer. METHODS: We carried out a population-based case-control study including 1513 incident cases of breast cancer, 1095 of prostate cancer, and 3055 controls, frequency matched by sex, age and region. Occupational exposure to alkylphenolic compounds was estimated using a recently developed job-exposure matrix, which considered different scenarios of exposure and different subtypes of alkylphenolic compounds. RESULTS: History of occupational exposure to alkylphenolic compounds was modestly associated with breast cancer (OR = 1.23; 95% CI = 1.01-1.48). Within the different scenarios, the occupational use of domestic tensioactives was positively associated with breast cancer (OR = 1.28; 95% CI = 1.02-1.60), while occupational exposure in other scenarios showed mostly a suggestion of a similar positive associations. Exposure to nonylphenol ethoxylates was positively associated with breast cancer (OR = 1.21; 95% CI = 1.00-1.47), while exposure to other compounds was uncommon. In general, we did not observe associations between alkylphenolic compounds and prostate cancer, except for a positive association among men occupationally exposed to cosmetic, hair and personal hygiene products. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest a modest association between breast cancer risk and occupational exposure to alkylphenolic compounds, and no associations between these compounds and prostate cancer risk. These findings warrant further corroboration in other studies.

Job-exposure matrix for the assessment of alkylphenolic compounds.

OBJECTIVES: Our aim was to develop a job-exposure matrix (JEM) to assess occupational exposure to alkylphenolic compounds in epidemiological research, considering changes in their use over time, and including exposure probabilities in the assessments. METHODS: We consulted multiple sources of information, and performed interviews with 9 key people from industry and academia. 3 hygienists coded frequency (minority or majority of workers involved) and intensity of exposure (including dispersive processes, with shaking, or aerosol generation, or otherwise) to alkylphenolic compounds for all the 390 International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO)-88 job titles by period of time. Intensity and frequency of exposure were combined in a single score as follows: unlikely=0, occasionally+low intensity=1, occasionally+high intensity=2, frequent+low intensity=2, and frequent+high intensity=3. RESULTS: We identified 54 (13.8%) of the 390 ISCO-88 job titles with potential exposure to alkylphenolic compounds. In 6 of jobs deemed as exposed, exposure depended on the economic sector of the occupation. Nonylphenol ethoxylates were the compounds most commonly involved (30 job titles, 55.6% of the exposed). Variations in alkylphenolic compounds use varied greatly over time; while they are still used in the plastic and rubber industry, in domestic cleaning agents their use began to decline before 1995. CONCLUSIONS: We built a JEM to assess exposure to alkylphenolic compounds, taking into account changes in use over time, different types of alkylphenolic compounds and different scenarios of exposure, which can be a valuable tool for exposure assessment in epidemiological research on the health effects of these chemicals.