• IARC, Lyon
• Collaborators from several European and Canadian research institutes

Develop a sound scientific basis for assessing the risk of lung cancer in workers exposed to more than one occupational lung carcinogen in the general population.

• Development of exposure database (ExpoSYN)
• Development of project-specific Job-Exposure Matrix (SYN-JEM)

Synergy is a pooled analysis of European and Canadian case-control studies on lung cancer. Currently, about ~30,000 cases and controls are included for whom information on job history, smoking status, etc is collected. Aim is to assess the risk of lung cancer in workers exposed to more than one occupational lung carcinogen. Therefore, occupational exposure measurements from all over Europe and Canada are being collected for five known lung carcinogens, i.e. asbestos, chromium, nickel, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and respirable crystalline silica. These data together with auxiliary information (e.g. on working conditions and sampling methods) are recorded according a standardised format in ExpoSYN. Based on this exposure database, a project-specific Job-Exposure Matrix (SYN-JEM) will be constructed. This JEM will be quantitative and will, besides for job, also be distinguishing for industry, country and time period. Exposure levels to the five agents during the whole working life of the subjects will be assessed with SYN-JEM. Exposure-response relationships can subsequently be derived, as well as interactions between occupational carcinogens can be estimated.