A case control study on patients with
soft tissue sarcoma and
malignant lymphoma was undertaken to test whether there was any association between these diseases and past exposure to chlorinated phenoxy
acid herbicides or
chlorophenols. It was carried out over the period 1982-1988 in Victoria, Australia. Thirty males with
soft tissue sarcoma and 52 males with
malignant lymphoma were matched by age, place of residence and sex with one population control and one
cancer control each. Exposure was assessed by personal interviews conducted by an occupational hygienist. Exposures within 5 years prior to diagnosis of each matched case were ignored, both for the cases and their matched controls. The estimated relative risks for definite or probable exposure to chlorinated phenoxy compounds or
chlorophenols for at least 1 day were 1.0 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.3-3.1) for
soft tissue sarcoma and 1.5 (95% CI: 0.6-3.7) for
malignant lymphoma. When the criterion for exposure was raised to more than 30 days, the estimated relative risks were 2.0 (95% CI: 0.5-8.0) for
soft tissue sarcoma and 2.7 (95% CI: 0.7-9.6) for
malignant lymphoma. Additional analyses were carried out for exposure of at least 1 day to phenoxy
herbicides alone or
chlorophenols alone. None of the estimated relative risks was significantly greater than unity.