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Environmental Epidemiologic Investigation Of The Styrene-Butadiene Industry: Mortality Patterns With Discussion Of The Hematopoietic And Lymphatic Malignancies.

Meinhardt TJ; Crandall MS; Young RJ; Lemen RA

NIOSH :33 pages

00135797

Environmental and epidemiologic studies were conducted to determine specific mortality risks associated with exposure to styrene- butadiene (9003558) in the production of synthetic rubber. Occupational history records from 1943 to 1976 for 1,662 white male workers at one facility were analyzed, and records from 1950 to 1976 for 1,094 white male workers at another facility were analyzed. Records were analyzed further for a group of 600 males with at least 6 months of employment in the first facility from 1943 to 1945, when process and operational changes were made. The expected number of cause specific deaths in the exposed populations was calculated on the basis of total cause specific mortality rates of the US white male population adjusted for age and calendar time period; standard mortality ratios (SMRs) were also calculated. No statistically significant excesses in total or cause specific mortality occurred in the overall worker population in either facility, but there was a statistically insignificant excess of deaths due to leukemia and aleukemia, malignant neoplasms of the lymphatic and hematopoietic tissues, and lymphosarcoma and reticulosarcoma. In the restricted study, SMRs were higher for leukemia and aleukemia and for malignant neoplasms of the lymphatic and hematopoietic tissues than for the facility as a whole; however, the increases still were not statistically significant. None of the elevated SMRs in the second facility were statistically significant or appeared to represent a trend in mortality. Several overall and cause specific mortality ratios were lower for both facilities than for the population as a whole; this decrease was attributed to the healthy worker effect. The authors conclude that the production or manufacture of styrene- butadiene rubber may be associated with an excess of lymphatic and hematopoietic neoplasms.

NIOSH-Author; Field-study; Rubber-manufacturing-industry; Occupational-exposure; Epidemiology; Sarcomagenesis; Exposure-levels;

9003-55-8;

DSHEFS;

Industry-Wide Studies Branch, Robert A. Taft Laboratories, NIOSH, Cincinnati, Ohio, 33 pages, 13 references

OH;