Initial Findings from a Cohort Mortality Study of British Pottery Workers

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Abstract
A cohort of 7064 male pottery workers, born 1916–1945, was identified from health surveillance records maintained at a British government medical boarding center at Stoke-on-Trent. Exclusion of men who had ever previously worked with asbestos or in foundries, or for more than one year with other dusts, reduced the cohort for the present analysis to 5115. Vital status at June 1992 was ascertained for 98.9%, with 4352 reported alive and 705 (13.9%) dead. Death certificates were obtained for 681 (96.6%) deaths, 88 of which were from lung cancer. Because of possible bias in records relating to early deaths, analysis was limited to 470 deaths (68 from lung cancer) from January 1985–June 1992. Using expected rates for England and Wales, increased SMRs were found for all malignant diseases (1.44; 90% CI 1.25–1.65), lung cancer (1.91; 90% CI 1.55–2.34), non-malignant respiratory disease (2.87; 90% CI 2.28–3.58), and heart disease (1.36; 90% CI 1.19–1.54). Against expected rates for Stoke-on-Trent, the SMRs were less elevated but those for lung cancer (1.28; 90% CI 1.04–1.57) and non-malignant respiratory disease (2.04; 90% CI 1.62–2.55) were still greater than expected. However, a nested case referent study showed no relation between length of employment in the pottery industry and lung cancer death. Cherry, N.; Burgess, G.; McNamee, R.; Turner, S.; McDonald, C.: Initial Findings from a Cohort Mortality Study of British Pottery Workers. Appl. Occup. Environ. Hyg. 10(12):1042–1045; 1995.