Mortality among steel workers. A ten years follow up

Background: Some studies have reported an increased incidence of lung, kidney and colon cancer among steel workers, however this has not been an universal observation. Aim: To study the causes of death in a group of Chilean steel workers. Subjects and methods: Between January 1985 and December 1994, 4718 steel workers were followed. Their crude and standardized death rates, adjusted for age and diagnosis, were calculated. Results: During the study period 153 deaths were registered (3.2%), 78 in active workers (2.7%), 68 in retired workers (5.9%) and 7 in hired workers (1%). Main causes of death were liver cirrhosis (19%), gastric cancer (9.2%) and myocardial infarction (8.5%). Cirrhosis was the only cause with a significantly higher standardized adjusted rate (=171). Conclusions: We did not find elevated standardized mortality rates for respiratory diseases, lung or kidney cancer in this group of steel workers. Thus, our results did not show a specific occupational risk among these workers.