Cancer occurrence in shipyard workers exposed to asbestos in Hawaii.

Because large numbers of persons were employed in United States shipyards during World War II, the long-term risks for cancer associated with asbestos exposure in this setting are of great concern. We report here on the mortality findings after up to 29 years of follow-up on a retrospective cohort of 7971 male Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard workers, which included more than 3000 men whose employment period spanned the World War II years. Compared with the general population of Hawaii, workers in the shipyard cohort had no increase in total mortality or in total cancer mortality irrespective of the duration of their exposure. However, the risk ratio for lung cancer among workers with at least 15 years of asbestos exposure was 1.4 overall (95% confidence interval, 1.0 to 2.0) and 1.7 for those with a latency interval of 30 or more years (95% confidence interval, 1.0 to 2.5). In addition, seven mesotheliomas occurred between 1977 and 1982 in a subset of the cohort, consisting of 7029 Hawaii residents who are being followed prospectively for cancer incidence. This represented an incidence of 67.3 per million men per year, compared with a rate of 5.8 for the state as a whole. These results suggest that the long-term relative increase in risk for mesothelioma may be even greater than that for bronchogenic carcinoma in this and other cohorts of United States shipyard workers exposed to asbestos.

Effects of physical exercise on pregnancy outcomes: a meta-analytic review.

In this study, using meta-analysis the findings of all individual reports on the effects of exercise training on pregnancy outcomes were pooled to determine the effects of such training on the pregnant woman and her fetus. Meta-analysis is a statistical technique used to summarize the results of experimental studies that address a common problem. Results show that women who exercised during their pregnancies did not differ from sedentary women for any of the outcome variables measured: maternal weight gain (P = 0.07), infant birth weight (P = 0.20), length of gestation (P = 0.67), length of labor (P = 0.14), and APGAR scores (P = 0.59). Many of the exercise programs exceeded, without apparent adverse effects, the recommended limitations set by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Overall, an exercise program using any of a variety of exercise modes that is performed for an average of 43 min.d-1, 3 times.wk-1, at a heart rate of up to 144 bpm, does not appear to be associated with adverse effects to the mother or fetus in a healthy normal pregnancy. However, these findings should be cautiously applied owing to the nature of the currently available data base. Recommendations or precautions for programs of greater intensities can not be made at this time.

Animal fat consumption and prostate cancer: a prospective study in Hawaii.

Whereas case-control studies have been very consistent in suggesting a positive association between intake of dietary fat, especially animal fat, and prostate cancer, the results from past cohort studies have been mostly inconclusive. In this study, we evaluated consumption of high-fat animal products, raw vegetables, and fresh fruits, as well as obesity, smoking, and drinking, in relation to subsequent occurrence of prostate cancer. We studied a cohort of 20,316 men of various ethnicities interviewed between 1975 and 1980 in Hawaii. As of December 1989, 198 incident cases with invasive prostate cancer were identified by computer-assisted linkage of this cohort to the statewide Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registry. Relative risks (RRs) for prostate cancer computed by proportional hazards regression were elevated for intake of beef [RR for highest to lowest tertile of intake = 1.6; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.1-2.4] and milk (RR = 1.4; 95% CI = 1.0-2.1), and for a summary variable for intake of high-fat animal products (RR = 1.6; 95% CI = 1.0-2.4). Weight was not consistently associated with prostate cancer, but there was an association with height (> 167 cm) (RR = 1.8; 95% CI = 1.0-3.2 for the third and fourth quartiles relative to the lowest quartile in height). These associations were stronger in men diagnosed before age 72.5 years. The risk estimates for raw vegetable and fresh fruit intakes were close to 1.0. Smoking and alcohol drinking appeared to be unrelated to risk.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)