Mortality among rubber chemical manufacturing workers

Abstract

Background A retrospective cohort mortality study evaluated ischemic heart disease (IHD) among workers in the “rubber chemicals” manufacturing department of a Western New York plant. A previous study at the plant found elevated chest pain and angina among workers in this department. Methods Mortality experience of workers employed from 1946–1988 was followed through December 31, 1994. Mortality was compared to U.S. population rates and to local Niagara county rates by using the NIOSH life table analysis system. Poisson regression was used to examine patterns of IHD within the cohort. Results The standardized mortality ratio (SMR) for IHD among workers in the rubber chemicals department was 1.51 (U.S. rates) and 1.19 (Niagara county rates). Increased mortality from IHD in the rubber chemicals department was most pronounced at younger ages (< 50, SMR = 2.4); workers in a second chemical production department also had an elevated (but not statistically significant) SMR of 1.5 for IHD. Conclusions IHD mortality among workers in the rubber chemicals department was elevated, particularly among those under 50 years of age. Potential occupational risk factors for IHD include the rotating shift pattern for employees assigned to two chemical production departments and chemical exposures present in the rubber chemicals department. Am. J. Ind. Med. 37:590–598, 2000. Published 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Increased bladder cancer risk among workers exposed too-toluidine and aniline: a reanalysis

“…The plant, processes and substances used and the study design and methods have been described previously 2 6. Briefly, personnel records were microfilmed for all workers employed at the plant since 1946, including office and salaried personnel.…”

“…In the original NIOSH studies,2 6 workers were classified into three mutually exclusive groups: (1) ‘definitely exposed’, workers who had ever worked in the rubber chemicals department, even if they had periods of employment outside of that department; (2) ‘possibly exposed’, workers ever employed in maintenance, shipping, janitorial or yard work; and (3) ‘probably not exposed’, all other workers who were not likely to have been exposed to o -toluidine and aniline. Consequently, we adjusted the original exposure groups to reclassify some departments based on updated information ascertained during a plant walkthrough, interviews with employees, management and union representatives, and review of records.…”

“…Previous analyses2 6 considered only work in the rubber chemicals department as definitely exposed and work in maintenance, shipping/packaging/warehouse and yard/janitor departments as possibly exposed. Workers were assigned to the highest exposure category of all the departments where they had worked.…”

“…They indicated that, at a minimum, laboratory workers should be considered definitely exposed since they routinely handled samples of o -toluidine and aniline. The aim of this paper is to present a reanalysis of the original study data2 6 using updated exposure categories.…”

Cancer mortality and occupational exposure to aromatic amines and inhalable aerosols in rubber tire manufacturing in Poland

“…Most of the data on carcinogenic risk in the rubber industry come from the studies that have been carried out in factories in the United States and Western Europe [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27], with only few studies being conducted in other parts of the world [28][29][30]. In Poland a retrospective cohort study of rubber workers employed after 1950 was set up in the early 1990s with the results published for the first time in 2001 [30] after a follow-up until 1995.…”