Premium
An updated mortality follow‐up study of Florida phosphate industry workers
Author(s) -
Checkoway Harvey,
Heyer Nicholas J.,
Demers Paul A.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
american journal of industrial medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.7
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1097-0274
pISSN - 0271-3586
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0274(199610)30:4<452::aid-ajim11>3.0.co;2-3
Subject(s) - medicine , poisson regression , lung cancer , cohort , cohort study , demography , relative risk , cancer , environmental health , population , confidence interval , sociology
We have added 14 years of mortality follow‐up to a previously studied cohort of 18,446 white and 4,546 nonwhite male workers in the Florida phosphate industry. Follow‐up was performed for the years 1949–1992. Based on comparisons with national rates, lung cancer standardized mortality ratios (SMR) were slightly elevated among white (SMR = 1.19; 354 observed) and nonwhite males (SMR = 1.13; 105 observed). However, no lung cancer excesses were found relative to local county rates (SMR = 0.98 for whites, SMR = 0.94 for nonwhites). Based on internal analyses of lung cancer mortality, using Poisson regression modeling, there were no associations of lung cancer with cumulative exposures to total dust, silica, or acid mists. There were weak trends or lung cancer risk with alpha and gamma radiation among white males, but no associations with radiation in nonwhites. No relation was found between acid mist exposures and laryngeal cancer. We conclude that there have not been large excesses of lung cancer or other diseases related to workplace exposures in this cohort. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.