Cancer incidence among Finnish rubber workers

A follow-up study was carried out among workers in the processing and tire and tube fabrication departments of a Finnish rubber plant. A total of 1.331 workers were followed up for cancer through the files of the Finnish Cancer Registry from 1953 to 1976 (11,709 person years). The expected number of cancer cases was calculated on the basis of the age and sex-specific incidence rates for the urban population of the surrounding province. Twenty-one cancer cases were found against 18.9 expected (RR 1.1, 95% confidence interval 0.7-1.7). The risk of cancer of the digestive organs, respiratory organs, and urinary bladder was higher than expected, and the risk increased with the length of the follow-up time. However, the differences were not statistically significant.