Cumulative Occupational Exposure to Inorganic Dust and Fumes and Invasive Pneumococcal Disease with Pneumonia

Purpose: Occupational exposure to inorganic dust and fumes in the year preceding disease has been associated with increased pneumococcal pneumonia risk, but the impact of prior cumulative exposure has not been characterized.

Methods: We studied 3184 cases of invasive pneumococcal disease with pneumonia. The case index date was the day the infection was diagnosed. We selected six controls for each case from the Swedish population registry; each control was assigned the index date of their corresponding case. We linked job histories to a job-exposure matrix to calculate a cumulative exposure index, intensity-years, by multiplying the duration (maximum 5 years) of each exposure with the level of exposure (0 for unexposed, 1 for low and 4 for high). We used conditional logistic analyses to estimate the odds ratio (OR) of invasive pneumococcal disease with pneumonia adjusted for comorbidities, educational level, income and other occupational exposures.

Results: Taking other occupational exposures into account, greater than 5 intensity-years of exposure to silica dust or to fumes was each associated with increased odds for invasive pneumococcal disease with pneumonia (OR 2.53, 95% CI 1.49-4.32) and (OR 2.24, 95% CI 1.41-3.55), respectively. Five intensity-years or less of exposure to silica dust or fumes manifested lower odds (OR 1.45, 95% CI 1.20-1.76) and (OR 1.05, 95% CI 0.94-1.16), respectively.

Conclusion: This study adds evidence that the risk of pneumococcal pneumonia increases with increasing cumulative exposure to dust and fumes, indicating the importance of cumulative exposure.