Cardiovascular disease and long-term occupational exposure to ultrafine particles: A cohort study of airport workers

Aim: To investigate if ischemic heart disease (IHD) and cerebrovascular disease is associated with long-term occupational exposure to ultrafine particles (UFP) outdoors at an airport. Methods and results: This is a register-based follow-up study based on a cohort comprising an exposed group of 6515 men employed in unskilled work at Copenhagen Airport and a reference group of 61,617 men in unskilled work in other firms in greater Copenhagen during 1990-2012. The exposure was assessed from information on proportion of time spent on the airport apron for each calendar year (apron-years) and the primary exposure measure was cumulated apron-years. The cohort was merged to the National Patient Register that includes data on all contacts to public and private hospitals in Denmark and the Register of Causes of Death. Risk estimates were provided by Poisson regression and adjusted for age, calendar year and educational level. We found no associations between cumulative apron-years and IHD (IRR, 1.00; 95%CI, 0.97-1.03) or cerebrovascular disease (IRR, 1.00; 0.98-1.02) when adjusted for confounders. Conclusion: In this large cohort study, we found no association between outdoor occupational exposure to UFP and IHD and cerebrovascular disease.