An Investigation of Mortality from Cancer and Other Causes of Death among Workers Employed at an East Texas Chemical Plant

Abstract

The cause-specific mortality of 2,510 males employed at an east Texas chemical plant was examined in a historical prospective study to evaluate a suspected increase in deaths from multiple myeloma and brain cancer. Potential exposures from chemicals, either used in manufacturing processes or produced during the study period 1952–1977, included the fuel additive tetraethyl lead, ethylene dibromide and dichloride, inorganic lead, and vinyl chloride monomer. Overall mortality for all workers (156 observed vs. 211.14 expected) and for workers first employed between 1952 and 1959 (131 observed vs. 167.33 expected) when tetraethyl lead was the single major product was lower than expected when compared to the United States general population. There were no significant increases in mortality from malignancies or other causes of death. The deficits may be due to the small number of total deaths, and the low power for detecting excess risk of mortality from multiple myeloma (z_1-β = 27, α = .05), brain cancer (Z_1-β = 31, α = .05), or other rare causes of death; lack of complete workplace exposure data for production workers; and the absence of historical measurements on the extent of environmental exposure to tetraethyl lead and other chemicals.