Biography

Dr. Blair received a Ph.D. in genetics from North Carolina State University and an M.P.H. in epidemiology from the University of North Carolina. He joined the NCI as a Staff Fellow in 1976, and was appointed to head the Occupational Studies Section in 1978. Dr. Blair was appointed Chief of the group when it became a branch in 1996. He has received the NIH Director's Award, the PHS Special Recognition Award, NIH Merit Award, the DHHS Quality of Work Life Award, the University of North Carolina H.A. Tyroler Distinguished Alumni Award, the John Goldsmith Award for Outstanding Contributions to Environmental Epidemiology from the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology, and The Harriet Barr Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Public Health Alumnus Association of the University of North Carolina and the NIH Director's Award for the Deepwater Horizon Gulf Oil Spill Study. Dr. Blair has authored more than 400 publications on occupational and environmental causes of cancer.

Research Interests

My research focuses on evaluating cancer and other disease risks associated with agricultural exposures, chemicals in the workplace and the general environment, physical activity and disease, methodologic issues in occupational epidemiology, and studies of under-investigated populations.

Pesticides

A number of pesticides are carcinogenic in laboratory animals. The widespread use of these agents raises questions about their carcinogenicity in humans. Several studies have focused on farmers since they have heavier and more frequent exposures than the general population and are able to identify their pesticide usage. Despite an overall lower mortality than the general population, farmers have excess cancers of the lip, stomach, brain, prostate, skin, and the lymphatic and hematopoietic system, as well as non malignant chronic diseases. Ongoing studies are designed to identify risk factors that account for these excesses.

Our studies found evidence for possible links between pesticides and pancreatic cancer in a case control study in China, and certain carbamate and organophosphate insecticides and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Studies of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma in Canada found links with several pesticides. Although previous studies associated non Hodgkin lymphoma with potential exposure to the herbicide 2,4 D, possible mechanisms of action are unclear. In a biomarker study among herbicide applicators, we found an association between urinary levels of 2,4 D and increased lymphocyte replication, the level after exposure being greater than before. Another study found higher exposure levels among farmers who did not follow careful work practices while applying insecticides to animals. A major prospective investigation of farmers and their families, the Agricultural Health Study (AHS) in Iowa and North Carolina, is gathering detailed information on pesticide use and collecting biologic specimens to evaluate gene environment interactions of pesticides and other agricultural exposures. Use of fungicides among orchardists in the cohort was associated with retinal degeneration. Because investigators are often dependent upon information from interviews to assess pesticide exposures among farmers, a methodologic study that obtained interview information from the same farmers a year apart found that they could reliably provide considerable detail on pesticide use. A study in AHS found that the insecticides paraquat, rotenone and dieldrin were associated with Parkinson disease. A case-control study of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma in Canada found risks for these cancers rose with increasing numbers of pesticides used that were possible or probable carcinogens.

Other Occupational Exposures

A study of members of a dry cleaning union exposed to solvents found excesses of esophageal and possible elevations for other cancers. An extended follow up of the mortality experience of a large cohort of workers exposed to formaldehyde found a continued excess of cancer of the nasopharynx and an excess of leukemia that rose with peak and average exposure. A cohort of people involved in the clean-up of the Gulf oil spill is being assembled to evaluate possible disease risks from exposure to crude oil and dispersants.

Keywords

agricultural exposures, breast cancer, environmental exposures, industrial exposures, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, leukemia, pesticides, solvents, crude oil

Selected Publications

• Silverman DT, Samanic C, Lubin JH, Wacholder S, Blair A, Stewart P, Vermeulen R, Coble J, Schleiff P, Travis W, Ziegler RG, Rothman N, Attfield M. The Diesel Exhaust in Miners Study: A nested case-control study of lung cancer and diesel exhaust. JNCI. 2012 June 6;104(11):1-14.
• Matthews CE, George SM, Moore SC, Bowles HR, Blair A, Park Y, Troiano RP, Hollenbeck A, Schatzkin A. Amount of time spent in sedentary behaviors and cause-specific mortality in US adults. Am J Clin Nutr. 2012 Feb;95(2):437-45.
• Leon ME, Beane Freeman LE, Douwes J, Hoppin JA, Kromhout H, Lebailly P, Nordby KC, Schenker M, Schüz J, Waring S, Alavanja MCR, Annesi-Maesano I, Baldi I, Dalvie MA, Ferro G, Fervers B, Fervers B, Langseth H, London L, Lynch CF, McLaughlin J, Merchant J, Pahwa P, Sigsgaard T, Stayner L, Wesseling I, Yoo KJ, Zahm SH, Straif K, Blair A. AGRICOH: A consortium of agricultural cohorts. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2011 May;8(5):1341-1357.
• Hohenadel K, Harris SA, McLaughlin JM, Spinelli JJ, Pahwa P, Dosman JA, Demers PA, Blair A. Exposure to multiple pesticides and risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in men from six Canadian provinces. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2011 Jun;8(6):2320-30.
• Blair A, Thomas KT, Coble J, Sandler DP, Hines CJ, Lynch CF, Knott C, Purdue MP, Zahm SH, Alavanja MCR, Dosemeci M, Kamel F, Hoppin JA, Beane Freeman L, Lubin JH. Impact of pesticide exposure misclassification on estimates of relative risks in the Agricultural Health Study. Occup Environ Med. 2011;68:537-541.
• Blair A, Marrett L, Beane Freeman L. Occupational cancer in developed countries. Environmental Health. 2011;10(Suppl 1):S9.
• Chang CM, Schroeder JC, Olshan AF, Dunphy CH, Huang W-Y, Baric RS, Dorsey KC, Cerhan JR, Lynch CF, Rothman N, Cantor KP, Blair A. A case-control study of tobacco use and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) subtypes defined by t(14;18) translocations and bcl-2 expression. Cancer Causes Control. 2010;21(7):1147-1154.
• Blair A, Saracci R,Vineis P, Cocco P, Forastiere F, Grandjean P, Kogevinas M, Kriebel D, McMichael AJ, Pearce N, Porta M, Samet J, Sandler DP, Seniori Costantini R, Vainio H, Zahm SH. Epidemiology, public health and the rhetoric of false positives. Environ Health Perspect. 2009;117(1):1809-1813.
• Blair A, Beane Freeman L. Epidemiologic studies of cancer in agricultural populations: observations and future directions. J Agromedicine. 2009;14(2):125-131.
• Beane Freeman L, Blair A, Lubin JH, Stewart PA, Hayes RB, Hoover RN, Hauptmann M. Mortality from lymphohematopoietic malignancies among workers in formaldehyde industries: The National Cancer Institute cohort. JNCI. 2009;101:751-761.

Collaborators

DCEG Collaborators

• Michael CR Alavanja, Ph.D.; Dalsu Baris, M.D., Ph.D.; Laura Beane-Freeman, Ph.D.; Louise Brinton, Ph.D.; Kenneth P. Cantor, Ph.D.; Joanne Colt, M.S.; Joseph F. Fraumeni, Jr., M.D.; Montserrat Garcia-Closas, M.D., Dr.P.H.; Patricia Hartge, Sc.D.; Michael Hauptmann, Ph.D.; Robert Hoover, M.D., Sc.D.; Bu Tian Ji, M.D., Dr. P.H.; Jay Lubin, Ph.D.; Charles Matthews, Ph.D., Lindsay Morton, Ph.D.; Mark Purdue, Ph.D.; Nathaniel Rothman, M.D.; Debra Silverman, Sc.D.; Patricia A. Stewart, Ph.D.; Robert E. Tarone, Ph.D.; Mary H. Ward, Ph.D.; Shelia H. Zahm, Sc.D.

Other NCI Collaborators

• Rachel Ballard-Barbash, M.D.; Barry Miller, Ph.D.

Other NIH Collaborators

• Jane Hoppin, Sc.D., Freja Kamel, Ph.D.; Dale Sandler, Ph.D.,; National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
• Linda Pottern, Ph.D., National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute

Other Scientific Collaborators

• Aage Andersen, Ph.D.; Norwegian Cancer Registry, Oslo, Norway
• Michael Attfield, Ph.D.; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Morgantown, WV
• Leon Burmeister, Ph.D.; University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
• Brian Chiu, Ph.D.; Northwestern University, Chicago, IL
• Pierluigi Cocco, M.D.; University of Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy
• Paul Demers, Ph.D.; Occupational Cancer Research Centre, Toronto, Canada
• James Dosman, M.D.; University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada
• Richard Hayes, D.D.S.; Ph.D., NYU Langone Medical Center, NY, NY
• Cindy Hines, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, OH
• Karin Hohenadel, M.S.; Occupational Cancer Research Centre, Toronto, Canada
• Nina Holland, Ph.D.; University of California, Berkeley, CA
• Frederick Holmes, M.D.; University of Kansas, Kansas City, KS
• Daehee Kang, M.D.; Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
• Manolis Kogevinas, M.D.; Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology, Barcelona, Spain
• Hans Kromhout, Ph.D.; University of Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
• Srmena Krstev, M.D.; Institute of Occupational and Radiological Health, Belgrade, Yugoslavia
• Maria Leon, Ph.D.; International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France
• Lizbeth Lopez Carrillo, Ph.D.; National Institute for Public Health, Mexico City, Mexico
• Charles Lynch, Ph.D.; University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
• Loraine Marrett, Ph.D.; Cancer Care Ontario, Toronto, Canada
• Thomas Mason, Ph.D.; University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
• Punam Pawha, MSc., PhD.; University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada
• Neil Pearce, Ph.D.; Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
• Beata Pepalonska, M.D.; Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Lodz, Poland
• Carol Rice, Ph.D.; University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
• Jennifer Rusiecki, Ph.D.; Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD
• Rodolfo Saracci, M.D.; IFC-National Research Council, Pisa, Italy
• Jonathan Samet, M.D., M.S.; University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
• Jane Schroeder, D.V.M., M.P.H, Ph.D.; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
• John Spinelli, Ph.D.; University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
• Kurt Straif, Ph.D.; International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France
• Carolyn Tanner, M.D.; Parkinson's Diseases Institute, Sunnyvale, CA
• Kent Thomas, B.S.P.H.; Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC
• Paola Vineis, M.D.; London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, London, UK
• Elizabeth Ward, Ph.D.; Dennis Zaebst, M.S.; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, OH
• Dennis D. Weisenburger, M.D.; University of Nebraska, Omaha, NE
• Tongzhang Zheng, D.Sc.; Yale University, New Haven, CT