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Updated: Jul 10, 2026
Assessment of the Cytotoxic and Immunomodulatory Effects of Substances in Human Precision-cut Lung Slices
Published on: May 9, 2018
[Exposed workers to lung cancer risk. An estimation using the ISPESL database of enterprises]
Alberto Scarselli1, Alessandro Marinaccio, Massimo Nesti
1Istituto superiore per la prevenzione e la sicurezza del lavoro (ISPESL), Dipartimento di medicina del lavoro, Laboratorio di epidemiologia occupazionale, Roma, Italia. alberto.scarselli@ispesl.it
Objective:
lung cancer is the first cause of death in the industrialized country among males and is increasing among females. In 2001 a uniform and standardised list of occupations or jobs known or suspected to be associated with lung cancer has been prepared. The aim of this study is to set up a database of Italian enterprises corresponding to activities related to this list and to assess the number of potentially exposed workers.
Design:
a detailed and unique list of codes, referred to Ateco91 ISTAT classification with exclusion of the State Railways and the public administration sectors, has been developed. The list is divided into two categories: respectively for occupations or jobs definitely entailing carcinogenic risk and for those which probably/possibly entail a risk. Firms have been selected from the ISPESL database of enterprises and the number of workers has been estimated on the basis of this list.
Setting:
Italy.
Main Outcome Measures:
assessment of the number of workers potentially exposed to lung cancer risk and creation of a register of involved firms.
Results:
the number of potentially exposed workers in the industrial and services sector related to lung cancer risk is 650,886 blue collars and the number of firms censused in Italy is 117,006 units. Corresponding figures in the agriculture sector are 163,340 and 84,839. This type of evaluation, being based on administrative sources rather then on direct measures of exposure, certainly includes an overestimation of exposed workers.
Conclusions:
the lists based on a standard classification which have been created allow for the creation of databases which can be used to control occupational exposure to carcinogens and to increase comparability between epidemiologic studies based on job-exposure matrix.
