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matrix
In the OCCAM project, a special attention has been paid to the information from the scientific literature.
A major drawback in OCCAM-like studies is the huge number of risk estimates; it is likely that some of them will appear only by chance. To interpret OCCAM results a special tool for skilled and unskilled operators in the occupational health fiels has been prepared. This tool is based on the literature about occupational cancer. This tool is based on a “literature matrix”; its aim is to allow to all people involved in occupational medicine to decide about the potential of a neoplasm to be of occupational origin.
Literature search started with IARC Monographs (Vol.1-55) where epidemiological studies on various substanced and production processes are reported. Furthermore, a sistematic search using appropriate keywords has been carried out on the database of U.S. National Library of Medicine (PubMed), 8600 Rockville, Bethesda, Maryland. The keywords used were:
- the economic sector (e.g.: textile – industry, wood – processing, construction, ecc.) in association with “cancer”, “occupational cancer” (es. textile and cancer etc.)
- sites for neoplasms (bladder, lung) or morphology (mesothelioma, angiosarcoma etc.) associated with “occupation”-“occupational”-“Work-related” e “cancer” o “tumor” (e.g. occupatonal/lung/cancer)
922 scientific papers have been reviewed from 74 journals reporting (Table) epidemiological studies, mainly cohort or case-control or prevalence (cross- sectional); case reports were excluded. To be included in the “matrix” were considered papers with results reporting:
- Increased risk of various neoplasms in an economic sector;
- Increased risk of the same neoplasms in different economic sectors
- Increaed risk for different sites in different sectors.
The database has been organized by economic sector and cancer site/type. Each record classified using these two axes has:
- First Author(s)
- Year of publication
- Type of risk indicator (RR, OR, SMR, MRR, PRR, PMR ...).
- Risk value(s)
- Categories of sub-analyses
- Each of these recors is linked to the journal and to the issue. This link allows also to access via NLM the abstract of the paper.
In this database only results showing increased risk were considered. “Negative” studies are not included. (Hernberg, 1981).
TABLE: Journals used to build up the matrix.
| Acta Otolaryngojatrica | International Journal of Cancer |
| American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal | International Journal of Epidemiology |
| American Journal Industrial Medicine | International Journal of Occupational Environmental Health |
| American Journal Occupational Medicine | International Journal of Oncology |
| American Journal of Epidemiology | Israel Journal Medical Sciences |
| American Journal Public Health | Japanese Journal of Cancer Research |
| American Revue of Respiratory Disease | Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health |
| Annals of Epidemiolology | Journal of National Cancer Institute |
| Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences | Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine |
| Annals of Oncology | Journal of Occupational Medicine |
| Applied Occupational Environmental Hygiene | Journal of Work and Environmental Health |
| Archives des Maladies Professionelles et de Medicine du Travail et de Securite Sociale | La Medicina del Lavoro |
| Archives of Environmental Health | Lancet |
| Aviation Space Environmental Medicine | Medical Oncology |
| British Journal of Cancer | Medicina (Kaunas) |
| British Journal of Industrial Medicine | Medycyna Pracy |
| British Medical Journal | Monaldi Archives for Chest Disease |
| Canadian Journal Public Health | National Institute of Health Publications |
| Canadian Medical Association Journal | New Zealand Medical Journal |
| Cancer | NIOSH Publications |
| Cancer Causes and Control | Occupational and Environmental Medicine |
| Cancer Detection and Prevention | Occupational Medicine (London) |
| Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention | Oncology Reports |
| Cancer Genetics and Cytogenetics | Preventive Medicine |
| Cancer Research | Rapporti ISPESL |
| Chemosphere | Revista Clinica Espanola |
| Chinese Journal of Preventive Medicine (Chung-Hua Yu Fang i Hsueh Tsa Chih) | Revue d'Epidémiologie et de Santé Publique |
| Critical Reviews in Toxicology | Scandinavian Journal of Work and Environmental Health |
| Danish Medical Bullettin | Social-und Praventiv medizin |
| Environmental Health Perspectives | The European Respiratory Journal |
| Epidemiologia e Prevenzione | The registrar-general's decennial supplement - London, her majesty's stationery office |
| Epidemiology | The Science of theTotal Environment |
| European Journal of Cancer | Toxicology |
| European Journal of Epidemiology | Toxicology and Industrial Health |
| European Journal of Haematology | Tumori |
| Giornale Italiano di Medicina del Lavoro | Urologiia i Nefrologiia (Mosk) |
| Industrial Health | Zeitschrift für die gesamte Hygiene und Ihre Grenzgebiete |
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International Archive of Occupational and Environmental Health
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