Large Study Revealed Increased Risk of Cancer for Computer Factory Workers
October 22, 2006 by Gloria Gamat
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
Published recently in the open access journal Environmental Health that investigated over 30,000 deaths of workers who had been employed at IBM factories in the USA, revealed that workers at computer factories are at an increased risk of dying of cancer.
The study reveals that IBM factory workers were more likely to have died of cancer, including brain, kidney or breast cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, than the rest of the population.
Though the study’s author cannot link these deaths to any specific chemicals or other toxic exposures, the current study confirms previous, smaller studies and highlights clear health risks for workers in computer factories around the world.
Richard Clapp, from the Boston University School of Public Health, USA, studied the causes of death among all IBM factory workers who had worked for the company for at least five years between 1969 and 2001.
Clapp analysed the causes of death for 31,941 workers and compared them with causes of death among the American population during this period.
The data were obtained from the IBM corporation as part of a California lawsuit against IBM, and the plaintiffs’ attorneys contracted with Clapp to carry out the analysis.
Read more at Science Daily our access a copy of the article (provisional pdf file).
[Photo Credit: news.xinhuanet.com]
