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Environmental Health: A Global Access Science Source 2006, 5: 30. | Free Full |
Clapp, R. W. 
Mortality among US employees of a large computer manufacturing company: 1969–2001 
doi:10.1186/1476-069X-5-30

On 19 October 2006, IBM lost a war with epidemiologist Richard Clapp of Boston University who used the health files of IBM employees' to evaluate the potentially excess cancer risk in semiconductor clean room. With help from a New York district judge, Clapp finally published his results in Environmental Health (1). The publishing date should be 2004 when the authors had to withdraw their paper under great stress from IBM and the judge's "gag order", said Donald Kennedy, Editor-in-Chief of Science, "Indeed, in view of IBM's scornful view of the study's quality, one wonders why they tried so hard to keep it out of sight." (2) 

 
 Judgment 2006
Credit: Scidea Art 2006 Source: www.ScideaNews.com

Just what had happened to the IBM employees who died between 1969 and 2001? By analyzed mortality data on 31,941 employees—"the biggest cancer study in the electronics industry so far" (3), Clapp got conclusions that "men and women in that group were 7% or 15% more likely, respectively, to have died from cancer than were those in an age- and sex-matched subset of the U.S. population", said Dan Ferber (4);

And "several specific cancers and other causes of death were also significantly elevated in both males and females". The excess proportional-cancer-mortality-ratios for brain and central nervous system cancer were elevated 66% more likely, kidney cancer (62%), melanoma of skin (79%) and pancreatic cancer (26%) were significantly elevated in male manufacturing workers. Kidney cancer (112%) and cancer of all lymphatic and hematopoietic tissue (62%) were significantly elevated in female manufacturing workers (1).

The study doesn't mean that IBM will face the embarrassment lonely. To speak frankly and sincerely is always welcome. In fact, it's time for modern science that works hard to correct its own mistakes and pay much attention to occupational health.

 * Lin Pu is in the Physics Department of Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, CHINA.  

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