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Science 12 November 2004:
Vol. 306. no. 5699, p. 1115
DOI: 10.1126/science.306.5699.1115c
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ScienceScope

An IBM-funded study has found that the company's workers face no greater risk than the general population of developing cancer. The results, which have not yet been peer reviewed, contradict an earlier study paid for by attorneys of former IBM workers suing the company for causing their cancers (Science, 14 May, p. 937).

Researchers at Harvard University's School of Public Health and the University of Alabama examined health records of 126,000 workers and compared overall cancer death risks between IBM workers and the general population. The workers had a 16% lower risk of cancer and a 35% lower risk of dying than the general population, according to a memo released last week.

Joseph LaDou, director of the University of California, San Francisco's International Center for Occupational Medicine, who gave unpaid advice to lawyers for former IBM workers suing the company, believes IBM biased the study and says the results could reflect the fact that manufacturing workers tend to be healthier than the population at large. IBM representatives did not return repeated calls seeking comment.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)