Jobs and brain cancer may be linked

Farm workers, waitresses and people who work with rubber or cleaning chemicals are at a higher risk for brain cancer, according to a study by Yale scientists published this spring in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Tongzhang Zheng, Sc.D., associate professor of epidemiology and environmental health, found that an increased risk of brain cancer was associated with a variety of jobs involving gasoline, solvents, agriculture, rubber and plastic production, textiles, electric services, electronic equipment, plumbing and sheet metal. The higher risk, Zheng said, could be due to exposure to pesticides, solvents, dyes, metal fumes and other carcinogens. “More studies are needed, however,” he said, “because it could also be due to chance.”