Long-term follow-up mortality study of petroleum refinery and chemical plant employees

Abstract

A previous report presented the 1948–1983 mortality patterns of the Shell Deer Park Manufacturing Complex employees who where employed for at least 3 months from 1948 through 1972. The present study updates the earlier investigation by extending the vital status follow‐up through 1989 and by expanding the cohort to include employees hired after 1972. As in the previous study, the overall mortality and cancer mortality for both refinery and chemical employees were quite favorable compared to residents in the local population. Among refinery workers, cancers for which a suspicion of work‐relatedness was raised in the previous study, i.e. leukemia and cancers of the central nervous system and biliary passage/liver, no supportive evidence was found in this update. For both refinery and chemical plant employees, the mortality rate due to cancers of all lymphopoietic tissue increased with increasing duration of employment; this finding was also noted by the original study. This was also evident for lymphoreticulasarcoma in refinery employees and for leukemia in chemical plant employees. However, elevations of cancers of all lymphatic and hematopoietic tissue are primarily confined to employees who started work at the complex before 1946. By contrast, deaths from cancer of all lymphatic and hematapoietic tissue for employees hired after 1945 were 22% lower than the comparison population. Seven deaths with mesothelioma mentioned on the death certificates were identified, with 3.2 deaths expected, resulting in a statistically nonsignicant SMR of 219. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

A 56-Year Mortality Follow-Up of Texas Petroleum Refinery and Chemical Employees, 1948–2003

“…7 The increase in mesothelioma deaths is indicative of asbestos exposure. [33][34][35] Of the causes of death examined in this update study, mesothelioma is the only condition showing a statistically significant increase.…”

“…A detailed description of the study cohort was reported elsewhere. 7 For this update, the population consisted of employees who had worked at the DPMC for at least 3 months from 1948 to 2003 and who met the previous study eligibility criteria. A total of 10,621 employees were identified.…”

“…A more detailed description is provided elsewhere. 7 Vital status as of December 31, 2003, for each study member was determined from a number of sources, including company records, the Social Security Administration's (SSA's) Master Beneficiary file, and the National Death Index (NDI), which has been shown to have almost complete ascertainment of deaths (97%) occurring since 1979. 18,19 A total of 1641 cohort employees were actively employed at DPMC as of December 31, 2003, and were classified as living.…”

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] In a previous report, the mortality of employees from the DPMC was followed up through 1989. 7 Results from these analyses were generally favorable in that the all-cause mortality, overall cancer mortality, and deaths from most specific causes were lower than those of the comparable local population in Harris County, Texas, where the facility is located. However, mortality from certain diseases including mesothelioma and cancer of lymphopoietic tissue was increased, particularly among long-term employees.…”

Trends in cigarette smoking among refinery and petrochemical plant employees with a discussion of the potential impact on lung cancer

“…However, smoking information for a working population has rarely been reported (Ven Peenen et al 1984). In the overwhelming majority of these studies, lung cancer mortality has been well below (about 20% lower) either the general US or the local population (Wong and Raabe 2000;Delzell et al 1988;Rushton 1993;Harrington 1987;Huebner et al 1997;Honda et al 1995;Satin et al 1996;Divine et al 1999;Tsai et al 1993Tsai et al , 1996Tsai et al , 1997. In response to this ®nding, a number of reports have recently hypothesized that the lower lung cancer mortality among re®nery and petrochemical workers is due to lower average cigarette consumption (Finkelstein 1996(Finkelstein , 1999.…”