Cause-Specific Mortality Among Kelly Air Force Base Civilian Employees, 1981???2001

Abstract

In response to concerns about occupational and environmental exposures, and a perceived cluster of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in the community, the mortality experience among 31,811 civilian employees who worked for at least 1 year between 1981 and 2000 at Kelly Air Force Base, Texas was ascertained. A total of 3264 deaths occurred through October 31, 2001. Overall, significant deficits in mortality were observed for all causes of death and all cancers combined. An excess of breast cancer [standardized mortality ratio (SMR) = 216; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 128-341] among blue-collar women was identified, and remained elevated after adjusting for race and ethnicity [rate ratio (RR) = 2.83; 95% CI = 1.50-5.34]. Mortality from motor neuron disease, which includes ALS deaths, was not increased overall (SMR = 0.98; 95% CI = 0.52-1.68), and was lower among blue-collar employees and higher among white-collar employees than expected, based on small numbers. Overall, mortality patterns indicated a healthy worker population and no large increased mortality associated with employment at Kelly Air Force Base.

Sports and trauma in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis revisited

“…However, there are some data for ALS, albeit not well publicized. Specifically, in the Kelly Air Force Base study, even though overall mortality and mortality from all cancers combined was reduced, the number of cases of ALS identified was the number expected in this cohort [27].…”

“…This type of reasoning has been shown to account well for secular trends in mortality from NDD, utilizing a model of a susceptible population subset [28][29][30][31]. With regards to ALS -a "healthy worker effect" has been shown not to occur in at least one instance [27].…”