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Date of filling in this questionnaire or last update: 19/05/2020
1. IDENTIFICATION & BASIC DESCRIPTION
Cohort name
  Derbit
Country
 

  • Italy
Please provide any other information on the cohort location/s if needed
  Province of Bologna (North-Eastern Italy)
Name
  Stefania Curti
Institution
  University of Bologna
Email
  stefania.curti@unibo.it
Do you want to add another Principal Investigator of the Cohort
 

  • Add another Principal Investigator of the cohort
Name
  Stefano Mattioli
Institution
  University of Bologna
Email
  s.mattioli@unibo.it
Website
 

  • N/A
Name of committee
  University of Eastern Piedmont Ethical Review Board
Upload files
 

Contact Principal Investigator (name)
  Stefania Curti
Data access policy (briefly describe)
  Data access could be considered after an agreement between Principal Investigators
Is this cohort part of a consortium? (name consortium)
  Yes, it is part of the framework of the ’Asbestos Project’ organised by the Italian National Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Ricerca corrente 2012: Progetto amianto)
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
  To investigate a possible association of pharyngeal tonsillar carcinoma and mixed carcinogen exposures in a factory that produced asphalt rolls containing asbestos
Study design (please select as many as appropriate)
 

  • Retrospective cohort
  • Other
Specify: Other
  cohort mortality study
Source population (please select as many as appropriate)
 

  • Industry / occupation -based
Comparators (please select as many as appropriate)
 

  • Internal study population
  • External study population (includes SMR/SIR studies)
Inclusion criteria
  All the workers—including subcontracted warehouse workers—involved in the 33-year production history of the company from its first day of production on 7 January 1964 until the closure of the plant on 7 February 1997 were included.
Exclusion criteria
  None
Enrollment
  Completed
Age range at entry (main cohort)
 

Minimum Maximum Mean
29.3

Age range at entry (subcohort)
 

Minimum Maximum Mean Please describe
29.3
29.3

Men at enrollment
  343
Women at enrollment
  72
Children (<18 years) at enrollment
  N/A
Men at last follow-up
  338
Women at last follow-up
  72
Children (<18 years) at last follow-up
  N/A
Participation rate at enrollment (if known)
  100
Comments
  In 1979, the original factory was closed because of a fire, and the management agreed to eliminate asbestos from all production processes. Production of asphalt roofing rolls resumed in 1980 in a new factory constructed nearby and broadly in line with modern occupational health and safety standards. These changes allowed us to evaluate two subcohorts of workers based on exposure status: (1) those who started work between January 1964 and June 1979, who were exposed to the old factory in which asbestos was used; (2) those who worked only in the new factory (ie, after June 1979). We ascertained the vital status of the study population on February 2001. All the data reported in this questionnaire refers to this follow-up.
2. OUTCOME FOLLOW-UP
Type of data for outcome follow-up (please select as many as appropriate)
 

  • Death certificate
Death certificate (specify)
 

  • For each cohort member, we sent survey cards to local government offices to ascertain vital status and current residence or, for those who had died, date, place, and cause of death. We requested copies of death certificates for the deceased and embarkation details for workers who had left the country.
First follow-up period (provide year)
  2001
Last follow-up period (provide year)
  2001
Number of follow-ups after baseline (provide number)
  1
Participation at last follow-up (if known)
  99
Comments
  In the Derbit cohort, we ascertained the vital status of the study population on February 2001 (see reference attached).
A further update was performed within the framework of the ’Asbestos Project’. In fact, this cohort took part in a large pool of Italian cohort studies aimed at evaluating the burden of asbestos-related diseases in former asbestos workers, assessing the occurrence of cancers with limited evidence of association and investigating the role of time-related factors in disease occurrence (reference of the first report: Ferrante et al. Italian pool of asbestos workers cohorts: mortality trends of asbestos-related neoplasms after long time since first exposure. Occup Environ Med. 2017 Dec;74(12):887-898). To that purpose, the vital status of the Derbit cohort was ascertained on 2014. By that date, 6 workers were lost to follow-up.
3. OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURES
Source of exposure data collected (please select as many as appropriate)
 

  • Job-employment records
  • Environmental samples
  • Other (specify)
Specify: Other
  factory inspection reports
Occupational history/time frame
  Current, at enrollment
Occupational coding performed
  No
Types of exposure measurements
 

  • Workplace sampling
Methods for exposure assessment (please select as many as appropriate)
 

  • Expert assessment
  • Measurements (external sampling, biomarkers)
Main categories
 

  • Dusts and fibres
  • Solvents
  • Other chemicals
Dusts and fibres | Fibres
 

  • Asbestos (any form of asbestos chrysotile, crocidolite, tremolite, anthophyllite, etc. or asbestos-containing material)
Solvents | Aliphatic and alicyclic hydrocarbon solvents
 

  • Hexane
  • Other (specify)
Solvents | Aliphatic and alicyclic hydrocarbon solvents | Specify: Other
  heptane
Solvents | Aromatic hydrocarbon solvents
 

  • Toluene
Other chemicals | Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)
 

  • Bitumen fumes
  • Other (specify)
Other chemicals | Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) | Specify: Other
  benzo-alpha-anthracite
Comments
  In each subcohort, subgroups of workers were categorized by occupational exposure characteristics, based on job descriptions contained in factory inspection reports: blue-collar production sector workers (including subcontracted warehouse workers); other blue-collar workers; white-collar workers.
We extracted available environmental monitoring data from reports of various assessments conducted by the Local Health Authority (public Occupational Health Unit) between 1977 and 1990.
Some information about environmental air pollution (connected to section 6) are reported below:
Between 1977 and 1979 samples were taken outside the factory, presumably in the proximity of the chimneys. Compounds identified: hexane, heptane, benzene, toluene, and xylene.
4. OUTCOMES EVALUATED
Follow-up - type of outcome data collected (select more than one if applicable)
 

  • Death certificates
Outcome type (please select as many as appropriate)
 

  • Mortality
Diagnostic groups based on ICD10
 

  • C + D Neoplasms
  • Other (specify)
Other (specify)
  All causes, cause-specific mortality
C + D Neoplasms
 

  • Other, please state
C + D Neoplasms | Other (specify)
  carcinoma of the pharynx and tonsils
Comments
  For cause-specific categories of interest (death from all causes; all cancers; cancer of the lip, oral cavity, and pharynx; gastric carcinoma; lung cancer; cardiovascular diseases), we also calculated SMR by subcohort (before or after 1979), occupational exposure (production-line, other blue-collar, white-collar), and latency. Cause-specific SMRs for the entire cohort were also calculated.
Connected to ‘Other information’ (section 6): in 1977, the Local Health Authority first conducted health monitoring of workers assigned to the production sectors (those most exposed to the bitumen and asbestos fumes), including otorhinolaryngologic (ORL) and oncologic examinations. In 1981, further checks were carried out (ORL and cytological examinations).
5. BIOLOGICAL SAMPLES & ANALYSIS
Comments
  N/A
6. Other Information
 

  • Demographics
  • Environmental, air pollution
Possibility for linkage to data registries/data enrichment via data linkage
 

  • Cancer incidence
Please describe plans that are funded or most likely to be funded
  The Derbit cohort took part in a large pool of Italian cohort studies within the framework of the ’Asbestos Project’ organised by the Italian National Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità) (reference of the first report: Ferrante et al. Italian pool of asbestos workers cohorts: mortality trends of asbestos-related neoplasms after long time since first exposure. Occup Environ Med. 2017 Dec;74(12):887-898).