Re: The diesel exhaust in miners study: A nested case-control study of lung cancer and diesel exhaust and a cohort mortality study with emphasis on lung cancer

摘要

A few months ago, we finalized our reanal-ysis of the German potash miners cohort (1). This analysis did not show any notable association between exposure to diesel motor exhaust (DME) and lung cancer risk. It demonstrated, however, that previous employment in other mining, especially uranium mining, increased the risk of lung cancer. We read with great interest the large cohort study and the nested case-control study on DME and lung cancer in the Journal (2,3). According to the authors, the a priori defined analyses of the cohort data by Cox proportional hazard modeling did not reveal a clear association between DME and lung cancer. The authors later calculated a considerable risk due to DME after adding birth year as a linear term to the model, but the effect of this adjustment is neither shown nor discussed. It should, however, be noted that the year of first exposure to DME would not be equivalent to the year of hire, especially for older birth cohorts.