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Priority Substances List Assessment Report for Ethylene Oxide

2.0 Summary of Information Critical to Assessment of "Toxic" under CEPA 1999

2.4.4.2 Cancer

Table 4 Cytogenetic effects in humans (modified from IARC, 1994)
Number exposed (number of controls)	Exposure time (years)		Ethylene oxide level in air (ppm) ¹		Cytogenetic observations ²			Reference
Number exposed (number of controls)	Range	Mean	Range	Mean (TWA)	CA	SCE	MN	Reference
75 (0)				≤ 50	+	+		Abrahams (1980)
33 (0)	1-14		≤0.05-8	≤0.01 ³	(+)			Clare et al. (1985)
13 (site I) 22 (site II) 25-26 (site III) (171 controls total)			0.5 ⁴ 5-10 ⁴ 5-20 ⁴		- - +	- + +		Stolley et al. (1984); Galloway et al. (1986)
12 (12)			≤36			+		Garry et al. (1979)
14 (14)			<0.07- 4.3 ⁴			-		Hansen et al. (1984)
18 (factory I) 10 (factory II) (20 controls total)	0.5-8 0.5-8	3.2 1.7		<1 <1	+ +	- -	+⁵	Hogstedt et al. (1983)
18 (sterilization centres) (10) 14 (laboratory - 1983) (10) 11 (laboratory - 1984) (10) 21 (production workers) (20)	1-8 1-15 1-15 2-17		0-2,6 0-4 0-2,3 0-3.7		+ + - +			Karelová et al. (1987)
15 (smokers) (7) 10 (non-smokers) (15)	0.5-10 0.5-10	5.7 4.5	20-123 20-123			+ +		Laurent et al. (1984)
10 (10)		3	60-69 ⁴		+	+		Lerda et Rizzi (1992)
9 (low dose) (48) 27 (high dose) (10)		4 15	2.7-10.9 2.7-82	2.7 5.5	+ +	- +		Major et al. (1996)
34 (23)		8 ⁶	<0.1- 2.4 ⁴	<0.3	-	+	-	Mayer et al. (1991)
12 5 (11 controls total)	1-8 0.8-3	4 1.6	0.5-1 5-10		- +			Pero et al. (1981)
11 (smokers) 14 (non-smokers) (10 controls total)			0.5-417⁷ 0.5-208 ⁷			- -		Popp et al. (1994)
75 (22)	3-14	7	2-5 ⁴		+		+	Ribeiro et al. (1994)
56 (141)	1-10	1-40 ⁴			+	+		Richmond et al. (1985)
22 (22) 19 (19)	0.6-4 1.5-15	3 6.8	0.2-0.5 ⁴ 3,7-20 ⁴	0.35 10.7	(+) +	+ +		Sarto et al. (1984)
10 (10)			0-9.3 ⁴	1.84		+		Sarto et al. (1987)
9 (27 controls total) 3	0.5-12	5	0.025-0.38 ⁴ >0.38 ⁸				- +⁹	Sarto et al. (1990)
5 (10 controls total) 5	0.1-4 4-12	2 8.,6	<1-4,4	0.025 0.38	+	- - ¹⁰	- ¹⁰	Sarto et al. (1991)
32 (8 controls total) 11		5.1 9.5	0-0.3 ⁴ 0.13-0.3 ⁴	0.04 0.16		+ +	- -	Schulte et al. (1992)
9 (hospital workers) (8) 15 (factory workers) (15)	2-6 3-27	4 12	20-25 17-33		+ +	+ +	- +	Tates et al. (1991)
7 (7 controls total) 7 7	Accidental <5 >15		28-429 ⁴ <0.005-0.02 <0.005-0.01			- - -	- - -	Tates et al. (1995)
9 (low exposure) 5 (high exposure) (13 controls total)				13 ¹¹ 501 ¹¹		- +		Yager et al. (1983)
19 (35 controls total) 17	1-5 6-14		<0.05-8 <0.05-8	<0.05 <0.05	- -			van Sittert et al. (1985)