Abstract

A descriptive study conducted by the Roberval Community Health Department suggested the existence of excessive lung cancer mortality in the male population of the Chibougamau-Chapais region. Although that study was unable to identify the factors responsible for this apparent excess, mine work appears to be the most plausible candidate, as over 30% of the active male population of this region works in mines, principally copper mines. To establish whether an excess of lung cancer actually exists among miners in this region, it would be necessary to conduct a cohort study comparing the estimated cancer risk among miners to that among the general male Québec population. The existence of a dose-response relation could be determined by comparing the most highly exposed workers in the cohort to the least highly exposed ones.

This study was undertaken to establish the feasibility of such a cohort study. The results of several investigations conducted over the past year indicate that there is insufficient valid data to identify a cohort of workers with sufficient latency of exposure. Where cohort-definition data does exist, data on smoking habits is unavailable and would be extremely difficult and costly to obtain. Furthermore, environmental data is not readily available. The report therefore concludes that the cohort study appears to be impractical at this time.