1. IDENTIFICATION & BASIC DESCRIPTION
Cohort name
  The Lead Workers Study
Country
 
  • Australia
Name
  Malcolm Sim
Institution
  Monash University
Email
  Malcolm.Sim@monash.edu
Personal website
  https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/malcolm-sim
Do you want to add another Principal Investigator of the Cohort
 
  • Add another Principal Investigator of the cohort
Name
  Geza Benke
Institution
  Monash University
Email
  Geza.Benke@monash.edu
Personal website
  https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/geza-benke
Name
  Ewan MacFarlane
Institution
  Monash University
Email
  Ewan.MacFarlane@monash.edu
Personal website
  https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/ewan-macfarlane
Website
 
  • https://www.monash.edu/medicine/sphpm/coeh/research/lead-workers-study
Name of committee
  Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee
Or provide website
 
  • https://www.monash.edu/medicine/sphpm/coeh/research/lead-workers-study
Participation in pooled analyses
 
  • The cohort is potentially interested in participating in pooled analyses of (European) occupational cohort studies (note pooled analyses also includes remote decentralized analyses that would not require any transfer of primary data as well as meta-analyses).
Main aim of cohort, please briefly describe the main objectives of the cohort
  The Lead Workers study investigates cancer and mortality outcomes in a cohort of lead workers who were collected from an occupational monitoring program conducted in the 1980s and 1990s.
Study design (please select as many as appropriate)
 
  • Retrospective cohort
Source population (please select as many as appropriate)
 
  • Industry / occupation-based
Comparators (please select as many as appropriate)
 
  • Internal study population
Inclusion criteria
  4,000 former employees working in scheduled lead occupations, and who underwent routine lead biomonitoring between the 1960s and 1990s
Enrollment
  Completed
Age range at entry (subcohort)
 
Minimum Maximum Mean Please describe
18 65 35.9
Men at enrollment
  4114
Men at last follow-up
  4114
Comments
  This was a retrospective cohort study involving workers who had worked in scheduled (targeted) lead occupations in the Australian states of Victoria and New South Wales (NSW) and had participated in the state government medical surveillance programs, which were compulsory to workers in specific occupations. The surveillance program was specific to lead-exposed jobs (“scheduled” occupations) outside the primary lead industry (e.g., lead smelting).
2. OUTCOME FOLLOW-UP
Type of data for outcome follow-up (please select as many as appropriate)
 
  • Death certificate
  • Disease incidence records
Death certificate (specify)
 
  • The list of lead workers obtained from the surveillance records was linked to death registries so as to identify cohort members who had died (including date and causes of death) prior to the date the linkage was undertaken.
Disease incidence records (specify)
 
  • The list of lead workers obtained from the surveillance records was linked to cancer registries so as to identify cohort members who had a cancer diagnosis prior to the date the linkage was undertaken.
First follow-up period (provide year)
  5 years
3. OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURES
Source of exposure data collected (please select as many as appropriate)
 
  • Job-employment records
Occupational history/time frame
  Follow-up period
Occupational coding performed
  No
Types of exposure measurements
 
  • Workplace sampling
Methods for exposure assessment (please select as many as appropriate)
 
  • Expert assessment
Main categories
 
  • Other (specify)
Main categories | Other | Specify: Other
  Lead exposure
Comments
  Sources of Lead Exposure
All participants included in this study worked in jobs that were scheduled under state government health and safety regulations as being lead exposed jobs 14, 15. These included jobs with the following targeted occupational exposures:

dust or fumes of lead arising from the manufacture or handling of dry lead compounds;


manufacturing, assembling, handling or repairing of electric accumulators that involved the manipulation of dry lead compounds;


pasting or casting of lead;


breaking up or dismantling old, disused, or damaged lead accumulators and the sorting, packing, handling, or delivery of plates or other parts containing lead removed or recovered from such accumulators;


spraying with molten lead or alloys containing greater than 5% by weight of lead; recovery of lead from its ores, oxides, or other compounds by a thermal reduction process;


dry machine grinding, discing, buffing, or cutting by power tools containing greater than 5% lead by weight: and


machine sanding or buffing of surfaces coated with paint containing greater than 1% lead of dry weight.


All workers in the Victorian and NSW programs had BLLs measured regularly in accordance with the regulations and it was the employers’ obligation to ensure workers were tested. Workers in high-exposure jobs or with previous high BLL results were subject to more frequent blood testing. Although testing was mandatory and the study cohort is comprised of workers who were tested by the state government monitoring programs, not all individual BLL test results survived in the archive records.
4. OUTCOMES EVALUATED
Baseline - type of outcome data collected (select more than one if applicable)
 
  • Biomarker (specify)
  • Death certificates
Specify: Biomarker
  Blood sample
Follow-up - type of outcome data collected (select more than one if applicable)
 
  • Biomarker (specify)
  • Death certificates
Specify: Biomarker
  Blood sample
Outcome type (please select as many as appropriate)
 
  • Mortality
Diagnostic groups based on ICD10
 
  • C + D Neoplasms
C + D Neoplasms
 
  • Malignant neoplasms gastro intes. system including liver, gall bladder, pancreas
  • Malignant neoplasm lung
  • Malignant neoplasm of breast
  • Malignant neoplasms of male genital organs
  • Malignant neoplasm of urinary tract and kidney
  • Malignant neoplasms of thyroid and other endocrine glands
5. BIOLOGICAL SAMPLES & ANALYSIS
Biological samples collected
 
  • Blood
6. Other Information
 
  • Demographics
  • Medical history
  • Smoking
Possibility for linkage to data registries/data enrichment via data linkage
 
  • Cancer incidence
  • Mortality register