ArticleEnvironmental health perspectives2025
Exposure to Ethylene Oxide and Relative Rates of Female Breast Cancer Mortality: 62 Years of Follow-Up in a Large US Occupational Cohort.
Article in Environmental health perspectives, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Industrial point source emissions and incident breast and lung cancers: two case-control studies.Cancer causes & control : CCC · 2026Article
- Air Pollutants in Puerto Rico: Key Pollutants and Carcinogenic Properties.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Review
- Ethylene Oxide Measurements From OSHA Workplace Investigations: Patterns in Exposure by Industry, Occupation, and Over Time.American journal of industrial medicine · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundEthylene oxide (EtO) is a recognized carcinogen of concern in occupational and environmental settings, but evidence of cancer risks in humans remains limited. Since new EtO emission standards and mitigation measures have been proposed, further investigation of EtO cancer risks is needed to inform quantitative risk assessment.
objectiveOur objective was to estimate the association between cumulative EtO exposure and risk of death from breast cancer.
methodsWe had data on 7,549 women from the largest cohort of EtO-exposed workers who were employed for at least 1 y at one of 13 US facilities, with mortality follow-up from 1 January 1960 to 31 December 2021. We estimated relative rates (RR) of the association between cumulative EtO exposure [parts per million days (ppm-days)] and breast cancer mortality using Cox proportional hazard models, using a matched risk-set sampling design with attained age as the underlying time scale. We further examined a subcohort of women who participated in interviews that contained information about breast cancer risk factors.
resultsCumulative exposure to EtO was associated with elevated RRs of breast cancer mortality (181 deaths). In a log-log model with a 20-y lag fit, workers who accrued DISCUSSION: This updated analysis of an EtO-exposed worker cohort builds on evidence that EtO is a human breast carcinogen and supports recent exposure reduction proposals. Given the high prevalence of breast cancer, the large number of workers exposed to EtO and the potential for widespread environmental exposure increased risks observed even in the low exposure range are of serious public health importance. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP15566.
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