Assessment of Risk of Lung Cancer for Welders

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Abstract
Certain welding fumes contain significant amounts of Cr, Mn and Ni, and trace amounts of As and Pb. These metals exhibit mutagenicity in one or more in vitro bioassays, and several are strongly suspected human carcinogens, albeit in unknown forms. It might, therefore, be expected that welders experience an excess risk of respiratory tract cancer because of their occupation. A survey of the world literature has disclosed 22 epidemiological studies of cancer incidence among welders, 16 of which yield a total of 586 cases of lung cancer observed, based on .apprx. 600,000 man-years at risk; a risk ratio of less than unity was excluded within 95% confidence limits for 5 of these studies. A risk ratio of 1.3 was not excluded in any study. Although there may be many possible origins to the excess risk, if welders of stainless steels suffer an equivalent lung cancer risk to that of chromate workers because of their equivalent Cr(VI) exposure, then a resulting 3-fold risk ratio for 10% of all welders engaged in stainless steel welding would account for the total over-incidence experienced by the entire occupational group.

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