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Increased risk of acute myelogenous leukemia and multiple myeloma in a historical cohort of upstream petroleum workers exposed to crude oil

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Abstract

Benzene exposure has been shown to be related to acute myelogenous leukemia, while the association with multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma has been a much-debated issue. We performed a historical cohort study to investigate whether workers employed in Norway’s upstream petroleum industry exposed to crude oil and other products containing benzene have an increased risk of developing various subtypes of hematologic neoplasms. Using the Norwegian Registry of Employers and Employees we included all 27,919 offshore workers registered from 1981 to 2003 and 366,114 referents from the general working population matched by gender, age, and community of residence. The cohort was linked to the Cancer Registry of Norway. Workers in the job category “upstream operator offshore”, having the most extensive contact with crude oil, had an excess risk of hematologic neoplasms (blood and bone marrow) (rate ratio (RR) 1.90, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 1.19–3.02). This was ascribed to an increased risk of acute myelogenous leukemia (RR 2.89, 95% CI: 1.25−6.67) and multiple myeloma (RR 2.49, 95% CI: 1.21–5.13). There were no statistical differences between the groups in respect to non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The results suggest that benzene exposure, which most probably caused the increased risk of acute myelogenous leukemia, also resulted in an increased risk of multiple myeloma.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge Trond Pedersen and coworkers of Statistics Norway for establishing the historical cohort, Tom Børge Johannesen and Tove Dahl of the Cancer Registry of Norway for helping us with categorization of the diagnose of the various hematological neoplasms, and Åge Johannesen, also of the Cancer Registry of Norway, for preparing the Registry for matching the cohort to the Registry. This project has been financed with the aid of the Research Council of Norway, EXTRA funds from the Norwegian Foundation for Health and Rehabilitation, and the Department of Health of UNIFOB AS. We declare that we have no conflict of interest.

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  1. Section for Occupational Medicine, Department of Public Health and Primary Health Care, University of Bergen, PO Box 7804, Bergen, 5020, Norway

    Jorunn Kirkeleit, Trond Riise, Magne Bråtveit & Bente E. Moen

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  1. Jorunn Kirkeleit
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  2. Trond Riise
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  3. Magne Bråtveit
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Correspondence to Jorunn Kirkeleit.

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Kirkeleit, J., Riise, T., Bråtveit, M. et al. Increased risk of acute myelogenous leukemia and multiple myeloma in a historical cohort of upstream petroleum workers exposed to crude oil. Cancer Causes Control 19, 13–23 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-007-9065-x

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