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Mortality patterns in a group of former beryllium workers.

Bayliss DL; Lainhart WS; Crally LJ; Ligo R; Ayer H; Hunter F

Transactions of the 33rd Annual Meeting of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists, May 24-28, 1971, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Cincinnati, OH: American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists, 1971 May; :94-107

00041655

A Public Health Service record study of the mortality patterns of former employees in the beryllium (7440417) processing industry is presented. From the personnel files of participating companies, a cohort was assembled of some 8,000 former workers, a group in which the cause of death had been identified for more than 90 percent of the deceased members. Standard Mortality Ratios (SMR) by broad- cause category for beryllium workers based on United States death rates are presented. The categories used were malignant neoplasms of the digestive tract, lungs, or "other" area, cerebral vascular, heart disease, respiratory disease, and external causes. The occupations and lengths of employment in the industry were used to prepare subcohorts with similar beryllium exposure. The mortality experience of these subcohorts is compared. The following results were obtained. The workers were found to be a typically healthy working group with a low level of mortality based upon United States death rates. The SMR's were found to be very similar to those of other occupational groups. There appeared to be no clearcut trend in the SMR's for any of the variables examined, which included length of employment. Only lung cancer and respiratory disease deaths appeared in excess of 100 but not significantly so for those employees which had a length of employment lasting less than five years. Lung cancer appeared only slightly in excess for those starting employment after 1946.

Hygiene; Carcinogens; Statistics; Epidemiology

7440-41-7

19710528

Conference/Symposia Proceedings

1971

Transactions of the 33rd Annual Meeting of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists, May 24-28, 1971, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

OH