Biography

Dr. Blair received a Ph.D. in genetics from North Carolina State University and an M.P.H. in epidemiology from the University of North Carolina. He joined the NCI as a Staff Fellow in 1976, and was appointed to head the Occupational Studies Section in 1978. Dr. Blair was appointed Chief of the group when it became a branch in 1996. He received the NIH Director's Award, the PHS Special Recognition Award, the DHHS Quality of Work Life Award, the University of North Carolina H.A. Tyroler Distinguished Alumni Award, the John Goldsmith Award for Outstanding Contributions to Environmental Epidemiology from the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology, and The Harriet Barr Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Public Health Alumnus Association of the University of North Carolina. Dr. Blair has authored more than 350 publications on occupational and environmental causes of cancer.

Research Interests

My research focuses on evaluating cancer risks associated with exposure to pesticides and other chemicals in the workplace and the general environment, methodologic issues in occupational epidemiology, and studies of under-investigated populations.

Pesticides

A number of pesticides are carcinogenic in laboratory animals. The widespread use of these agents raises questions about their carcinogenicity in humans. Several studies have focused on farmers since they have heavier and more frequent exposures than the general population and are able to identify their pesticide usage. Despite an overall lower mortality than the general population, farmers have excess cancers of the lip, stomach, brain, prostate, skin, and the lymphatic and hematopoietic system, as well as non malignant chronic diseases. Ongoing studies are designed to identify risk factors that account for these excesses.

Recent studies found evidence for a possible link between pesticides and pancreatic cancer in a case control study in China, and certain carbamate and organophosphate insecticides and risk of non-Hodgkin''s lymphoma. Although previous studies associated non Hodgkin's lymphoma with potential exposure to the herbicide 2,4 D, possible mechanisms of action are unclear. In a biomarker study among herbicide applicators, we found an association between urinary levels of 2,4 D and increased lymphocyte replication, the level after exposure being greater than before. Another study found higher exposure levels among farmers who did not follow careful work practices while applying insecticides to animals. A major prospective investigation of farmers and their families (the Agricultural Health Study) in Iowa and North Carolina is gathering detailed information on pesticide use and collecting biologic specimens to evaluate gene environment interactions of pesticides and other agricultural exposures. Use of fungicides among orchardists in the cohort was associated with retinal degeneration. Because investigators are often dependent upon information from interviews to assess pesticide exposures among farmers, a methodologic study that obtained interview information from the same farmers a year apart found that they could reliably provide considerable detail on pesticide use.

Several ongoing investigations are evaluating possible relationships between serum levels of organohalide chemicals and cancer risk. In Alabama, a study is examining cancer and other health outcomes among mostly minority women who received heavy environmental exposure to DDT. In Michigan, breast disease is being investigated among women who were exposed to PBBs through accidental contamination of cattle feed. In Norway, a study is evaluating the relationship between serum levels of several persistent organohalide chemicals and risk of non Hodgkin's lymphoma, leukemia, multiple myeloma, and cancers of the prostate, pancreas, brain, and skin.

Other Occupational Exposures

A study of members of a dry cleaning union exposed to solvents found excesses of esophageal and possible elevations for other cancers. An extended follow up of the mortality experience of a large cohort of workers exposed to formaldehyde found a continued excess of cancer of the nasopharynx and an excess of leukemia that rose with peak and average exposure.

Keywords

agricultural exposures, breast cancer, environmental exposures, industrial exposures, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, leukemia, pesticides, solvents

Selected Publications

• Blair A, Tarone R, Sandler D, Lynch CF, Roland A, Wintersteen W, Dosemeci, Alavanja MCR. "Reliability of reporting on lifestyle and agricultural factors by a sample of participants in the agricultural health study from Iowa." Epidemiology 13:94-99, 2002
• Blair A, Petralia SA, Stewart PA. "Extended mortality follow-up of a cohort of dry cleaners." Ann Epidemiol 13:50-56, 2003.
• Hauptmann M, Lubin J, Stewart PA, Hayes RB, Blair A. "Mortality from lymphohematopoietic malignancies among workers employed in formaldehyde industries." JNCI 95:1615-1623, 2003.
• Zahm SH, Blair A. "Occupational cancer among women; Where have we been and where are we going?" Am J Ind Med 44:565-575, 2003
• Alavanja MCR, Sandler DP, Knott C, Lubin JH, Tarone R, Thomas K, Dosemeci M, Barker J, Hoppin J, Blair A. Cancer incidence in the Agricultural Health Study. Scand J Work Environ Health 31:39-45, 2005.
• Radican L, Wartenberg D, Rhoads G, Schnieder D, Wedeen R, Stewart P, Blair A. A retrospective occupational cohort study of end-stage renal disease in aircraft workers exposed to trichloroethylene and other hydrocarbons. J Occup Environ Med 48:1-12, 2006.
• Beseler C, Stallones L, Hoppin J, Alavanja M, Blair A, Keefe T, Kamel F. Diagnosed depression and pesticide exposures in female spouses of licensed pesticide applicators in the Agricultural Health Study. J Occup Environ Med 48:1005-1013, 2006.
• Blair A, Stewart P, Forastiere F, Lubin J. Issues regarding confounding and exposure misclassification in epidemiologic studies of occupational exposures. Am J Ind Med JNCI 50:199-207, 2007.
• Chiu B,Dave BJ, Blair A, JS, Gapstur SM, Chmiel JS, Fought AJ, Zahm SH, Weisenburger DD. Cigarette smoking, familial hematiopoetic cancer, hair dye use, and risk of t(14;18)-defined subtypes of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Am J Epid 165:652-659, 2007.
• Krstev S, Rusiecki J, Stewart P, Blair A. Mortality among shipyard Coast Guard workers: a retrospective cohort study. Occup Environ Med 64:651-658, 2007.
• Blair A, Purdue M, Weisenberger D, Baris D. Chemical exposures and risk of chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Br. J Haematology 2007 139:753-761, 2007.
• Leitzmann MF, Park Y, Blair A, Ballard-Barbash R, Mouw T, Hollenbeck AR, Schatzkin A. Physical activity recommendations and decreased risk of mortality. Arch Intern Med 167(22):2453-2460, 2007.
• Radicun L, Blair A, Stewart P, Wartenberg D. Mortality of aircraft maintenance workers exposed to the trichloroethylene and of the hydrocarbons and chemicals: extended followup. J Occup Environ Med 50:1306-1319, 2008.

Collaborators

DCEG Collaborators

• Michael CR Alavanja, Ph.D.; Dalsu Baris, M.D., Ph.D.; Laura Beane-Freeman, Ph.D.; Louise Brinton, Ph.D.; Kenneth P. Cantor, Ph.D.; Joanne Colt, M.S.; Mustafa Dosemeci, Ph.D.; Joseph F. Fraumeni, Jr., M.D.; Montserrat Garcia-Closas, M.D., Dr.P.H.; Patricia Hartge, Sc.D.; Michael Hauptmann, Ph.D.; Richard Hayes, D.D.S., Ph.D.; Robert Hoover, M.D., Sc.D.; Bu Tian Ji, M.D., Dr. P.H.; Jay Lubin, Ph.D.; Lindsay Morton, Ph.D.; Mark Purdue, Ph.D.; Nathaniel Rothman, M.D.; Debra Silverman, Sc.D.; Patricia A. Stewart, Ph.D.; Robert E. Tarone, Ph.D.; Mary H. Ward, Ph.D.; Shelia H. Zahm, Sc.D

Other NCI Collaborators

• Rachel Ballard-Barbash, M.D., Barry Miller, Ph.D.

Other NIH Collaborators

• Jane Hoppin, Sc.D., Freja Kamel, Ph.D., Dale Sandler, Ph.D., National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
• Linda Pottern, Ph.D., National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute

Other Scientific Collaborators

• Aage Andersen, Ph.D., Norwegian Cancer Registry, Oslo, Norway
• Paolo Boffetta, M.D., International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France
• Leon Burmeister, Ph.D., University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
• Brian Chiu, Ph.D., Northwestern University, Chicago, IL
• Pierluigi Cocco, M.D., University of Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy
• Larry W. Figgs, Ph.D., St. Louis University, St. Louis, MO
• Nina Holland, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, CA
• Frederick Holmes, M.D., University of Kansas, Kansas City, KS
• Daehee Kang, M.D., Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
• Srmena Krstev, M.D., Institute of Occupational and Radiological Health, Belgrade, Yugoslavia
• Lizbeth Lopez Carrillo, Ph.D., National Institute for Public Health, Mexico City, Mexico
• David Mage, Ph.D., Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC
• Thomas Mason, Ph.D., University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
• Neil Pearce, Ph.D., Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
• Beata Pepalonska, Lodz, Poland
• Carol Rice, Ph.D., University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
• Jennifer Rusiecki, Ph.D., Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD
• Carolyn Tanner, M.D., Parkinson's Diseases Institute, Sunnyvale, CA
• Kent Thomas, B.S.P.H., Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC
• Elizabeth Ward, Ph.D., Dennis Zaebst, M.S., National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, OH
• Dennis D. Weisenburger, M.D., University of Nebraska, Omaha, NE
• Tongzhang Zheng, Yale University, New Haven, CT