Mortality among employees at a petrochemical research facility

✍ Scribed by Brad Rodu; Elizabeth Delzell; Colleen Beall; Nalini Sathiakumar

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 141 KB
• Volume: 39
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0271-3586
• DOI: 10.1002/1097-0274(200101)39:1<29::aid-ajim3>3.0.co;2-k

✦ Synopsis

Background This retrospective follow-up study evaluated mortality during 1970±1996 among 6,956 employees at a petrochemical research facility in Illinois. Methods Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) compared employees' mortality rates with those of the Illinois general population. Poisson regression procedures estimated rate ratios for various subject subgroups compared to other facility employees. Results Subjects had 267 observed/524 expected deaths (SMR 51) from all causes combined and a large de®cit of deaths from all cancers (76/136, SMR 56) and from most other major diseases. Other results included fewer than expected brain cancers (1/4.0, SMR 25) and a slight increase in colorectal cancer (20/14, SMR 139) that was concentrated in white male scientists employed for one of the three main companies at the facility (SMR 295, RR 2.6). Conclusions The de®cit of brain cancer deaths contrasts with an excess incidence seen in a companion study. Subjects' generally favorable mortality experience probably re¯ects socioeconomic advantages of employees relative to the Illinois general population. Am.