Analysis of Mortality in Chrysotile Asbestos Miners in China

• Published in: Journal of Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Medical sciences Vol. 32; no. 1; pp. 135 - 140
• Main Author: 杜利利 王晓蓉 王绵珍 兰亚佳
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heidelberg Huazhong University of Science and Technology 01.02.2012
• Subjects: Adult; Age Distribution; Aged; Asbestos, Serpentine - analysis; asbestos;mortality;chrysotile;cancer;occupational; China - epidemiology; exposure; Female; Humans; Incidence; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Mining - statistics & numerical data; Occupational Diseases - mortality; Occupational Exposure - statistics & numerical data; Risk Factors; Sex Distribution; Smoking - mortality; Survival Rate; China; mortality; cancer; asbestos; chrysotile; occupational exposure
• ISSN: 1672-0733; 1993-1352
• DOI: 10.1007/s11596-012-0024-8

In order to investigate the mortality of a cohort of chrysotile asbestos miners in China and evaluate its association with exposure to chrysotile,a fixed cohort of 1932 workers in chrysotile asbes-tos mine was established in 1981 and followed till June 1,2010.Information on vital status,cause of death and smoking habits was collected.The workers were divided into two groups according to their exposure status.The exposed group was composed of frontline workers who worked directly on mining or processing asbestos products.The control group consisted of those who were not directly exposed to asbestos in their work.Standardized mortality ratio (SMR) was calculated according to Chinese national death rates.Cox proportional hazards model was applied to estimate the adjusted relative risks of deaths from major causes in exposed and control groups.The results of this study showed that main causes of mortality were malignant neoplasm,cardiovascular disease,cerebrovascular disease and respiratory disease for chrysotile miners.The mortality rate was 939.20 per 100 000 person-years for workers.The SMR for all causes of death was 1.46 in the cohort.Statistically significant mortality excesses were found for lung cancer (SMR=1.51),pulmonary heart disease (SMR=2.70),respiratory disease (SMR=1.93),asbestosis (SMR=9.62),and accident (SMR=1.59).The mortalities from malignant neo-plasm,lung cancer,cerebrovascular disease and digestive disease in the exposed group were signifi-cantly higher than those in the control group.The findings indicate that chrysotile exposure is a risk factor for lung cancer,respiratory disease,cerebrovascular disease and digestive disease.