Malignant melanoma in the printing industry

Abstract

To evaluate a recent report of malignant melanoma among printers, we used the Cancer-Environment Registry of Sweden, which links national cancer incidence and employment data. Employees in the newspaper printing industry had almost twice the incidence of melanoma than expected (p less than 0.01). Elevated risks were found not only among typographers and machine repairers, but also among journalists, editors, and business executives in the printing industry. Further studies are needed to clarify this relationship and identify specific exposures that may be responsible.