Pratt study: Brain cancer rates normal
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ROCKY HILL, Conn.—A study six years in the making of nearly 224,000 current and former workers shows that the rates of cancer deaths at jet engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney is the same or lower than in Connecticut and the U.S., researchers said Thursday.
"We're encouraged by these findings," Pratt spokesman Jay DeFrank said. "There's no association between any health issues and our workplace."
University of Pittsburgh researchers released the results from the first phase of the massive three-phase study of former and current employees who worked at one of seven Pratt & Whitney sites in Connecticut between 1952 and 2001.
Principal researcher Gary Marsh called the first-stage findings "exploratory."
"We still are not at the point in the overall investigation to have definitive answers about health risks in these factories, he said.
The study, which is expected to be wrapped up by late 2009, found that 95 percent of deaths, or 65,272, were the same as or lower than in the United States and Connecticut for all types of cancer and heart disease and other causes of death.
However, workers at the North Haven plant had 11 percent more brain cancer cases than the Connecticut population, the study found. Deaths due to kidney cancer and nonmalignant respiratory disease at the North Haven plant and bronchitis among hourly workers were higher than the general population, the study found. But those illnesses may have been due to factors outside of work or work outside the company, according to the study.
Researchers found that 606 workers died of central nervous system cancer or tumors, which is 15 percent lower than the U.S. population and 16 percent lower than in Connecticut.
Carol Shea, whose husband, John, died of brain cancer in 2000 at age 56, called the findings a start, but said she was disappointed with the study. John Shea worked at the North Haven plant for 35 years.
"I don't care what they say, I think it's significant that there are so many cases," she said.
The second stage of the study, commissioned by Pratt & Whitney at a cost of $12 million and overseen by the Connecticut Department of Public Health, will compare the incidence of brain cancer to types of work done by employees. The third phase will take a look at tissue samples from workers with brain cancer to compare genetic patterns with cancers in the general population. It also will compare work and non-work-related factors in brain cancer cases.
Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of Hartford-based
The study began in 2002 by the state Department of Health and Pratt after complaints from families of workers who had died from a form of brain cancer.
Concerns were first raised in 2000 by a health committee of representatives of Pratt and Whitney and the International Association of Machinists. The widows of two Pratt & Whitney workers were among the first to push for a comprehensive study.
An initial study by the state Health Department identified cases of the disease but reached no conclusion about a possible link between the cancer and workplace exposures to chemicals. Officials eventually said more than three dozen Pratt workers died of a rare form of brain cancer, glioblastoma multiforme.
Researchers added a genetic study, broadening the project's scope, as investigators waded through data on job applications, the race and sex of workers, work service cards, the location of jobs and job assignments.
