Cohort Mortality Study of Dry Cleaning Industry Workers

Dry cleaning industry workers are exposed to tetrachloroethylene and other chlorinated solvents that are possibly carcinogenic to humans. In order to investigate the cancer mortality patterns associated with employment and exposures in the dry cleaning industry, DCEG investigators from the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch (OEEB) conducted a retrospective cohort study of 5,369 workers who were members of a dry cleaning union in St Louis, Missouri between 1948 and 1978 for at least one year.

In a recently completed 22-year follow-up of the cohort, workers experiencing high solvent exposures were at increased risk of death from cancers of the bladder and kidney, hematologic malignancies, and heart disease.

For more information, contact Dr. Mark Purdue.

Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch - Research Areas

Callahan CL†, Stewart PA, Blair A, Purdue MP. Extended mortality follow-up of a cohort of dry cleaners. Epidemiology 2019.