Incidence of Respiratory Cancer among Workers Exposed to Chloromethyl-ethers

A factory in France had used technical-grade chloromethyl-methyl-ether in the manufacture of anion exchange resins since 1958. Technical-grade chloromethyl-methyl-ether contains a human lung carcinogen, bis-chloromethyl-ether. The purpose of this cohort study was to determine if workers at the factory whose jobs had involved potential exposure to technical chloromethyl-methyl-ether had a higher incidence of lung cancer than coworkers, or others without potential exposure. Lung cancer occurred at a higher rate among potentially exposed workers than among nonexposed workers at the same plant (rate ratio (RR)=5.0, 95% confidence interval (Cl) 2.0-12.3), or among an external reference population (RR=7.6, 95% Cl 4.3-13.5)