ArticleOccupational and environmental medicine2020
A follow-up study of occupational styrene exposure and risk of autoimmune rheumatic diseases.
Article in Occupational and environmental medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Exposure to Occupational Inhalants and the Risk of Developing Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2026Pooled it
- Assessing occupational styrene exposure in the European and US Glass Reinforced Plastics Industry for the period between 1947 and 2020.International journal of hygiene and environmental health · 2025Article
- Contributions of Synthetic Chemicals to Autoimmune Disease Development and Occurrence.Current environmental health reports · 2024Review
- Engineered Stone Fabrication Work Releases Volatile Organic Compounds Classified as Lung Irritants.Annals of work exposures and health · 2023Article
- Volatile organic compounds: A proinflammatory activator in autoimmune diseases.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Review
- Environment and Lifestyle: Their Influence on the Risk of RA.Journal of clinical medicine · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesIncreased risk has been suggested for autoimmune rheumatic diseases following solvent exposure. The evidence for specific solvents is limited, and little is known about exposure-response relations. Styrene is an aromatic, organic solvent and the objective of this study was to analyse the association between occupational styrene exposure and autoimmune rheumatic diseases in men and women.
methodsWe followed 72 212 styrene-exposed workers of the Danish reinforced plastics industry from 1979 to 2012. We modelled full work history of styrene exposure from employment history, survey data and historical styrene exposure measurements. We identified cases in the national patient registry and investigated gender-specific exposure-response relations by cumulative styrene exposure for different exposure time windows adjusting for age, calendar year and educational level.
resultsDuring 1 515 126 person-years of follow-up, we identified 718 cases of an autoimmune rheumatic disease, of which 73% were rheumatoid arthritis. When adjusting for potential confounders and comparing the highest with the lowest styrene exposure tertile, we observed a statistically non-significantly increased risk of systemic sclerosis among women (incidence rate ratio (IRR)=2.50; 95% CI 0.50 to 12.50) and men (IRR=1.86; 95 % CI 0.50 to 7.00), based on 9 and 22 cases, respectively. Results were inconsistent for the other autoimmune rheumatic diseases examined.
conclusionThis study suggests an association between occupational styrene exposure and systemic sclerosis in men as well as in women but based on few cases. This is a new finding and has to be replicated before conclusions can be drawn.
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