Cancer mortality among laundry and dry cleaning workers

✍ Scribed by James T. Walker; Carol A. Burnett; Nina R. Lalich; John P. Sestito; William E. Halperin

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 41 KB
• Volume: 32
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0271-3586
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0274(199712)32:6<614::aid-ajim7>3.0.co;2-p

✦ Synopsis

A cancer mortality study of 8,163 deaths occurring among persons formerly employed as laundering and dry cleaning workers in 28 states is described. Age-adjusted sex-race cause-specific proportionate mortality ratios (PMRs) and proportionate cancer mortality ratios (PCMRs) were computed for 1979 through 1990, using the corresponding 28-state mortality as the comparison. For those aged 15-64 years, there were excesses in black men for total cancer mortality (PMR ϭ 130, 95% confidence interval (CI) ϭ 105-159) and cancer of the esophagus 1 (PMR ϭ 215, 95% CI ϭ 111-376), and in white men for cancer of the larynx (PMR ϭ 318, 95% CI ϭ 117-693). For those aged 65 years and over, there were statistically nonsignificant excesses for cancer of the trachea, bronchus, and lung in black women (PMR ϭ 128, CI ϭ 94-170) and for cancer of other and unspecified female genital organs in white women (PMR ϭ 225,. The results of this and other studies point to the need for the effective implementation of available control measures to protect laundry and dry cleaning workers.