Bladder cancer and occupational exposure to diesel and gasoline engine emissions among Canadian men

Latifovic L, Villeneuve PJ, Parent M-É, Johnson KC, Kachuri L, the Canadian Cancer Registries Epidemiology Group, Harris SA. Bladder cancer and occupational exposure to diesel and gasoline engine emissions among Canadian men. Cancer Medicine 2015;4(12):1948-62.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified diesel exhaust as a carcinogen based on lung cancer evidence; however, few studies have investigated the effect of engine emissions on bladder cancer. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between occupational exposure to gasoline emissions and bladder cancer in men using data from a population-based case-control study. Relative to unexposed, men ever exposed to high concentrations of diesel emissions were at an increased risk of bladder cancer (OR = 1.64, 0.87-3.08), but this result was not significant, and those with >10 years of exposure to diesel emissions at high concentrations had a greater than twofold increase in risk (OR = 2.45, 1.04-5.74). Increased risk of bladder cancer was also observed with >30% of work time exposed to gasoline engine emissions (OR = 1.59, 1.04-2.43) relative to the unexposed, but only among men that had never been exposed to diesel emissions. Taken together, our findings support the hypothesis that exposure to high concentrations of diesel engine emissions may increase the risk of bladder cancer.