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  • Title: Cause-specific mortality in Finnish ferrochromium and stainless steel production workers.
    Author: Huvinen M, Pukkala E.
    Journal: Occup Med (Lond); 2016 Apr; 66(3):241-6. PubMed ID: 26655692.
    Abstract:
    BACKGROUND: Although stainless steel has been produced for more than a hundred years, exposure-related mortality data for production workers are limited. AIMS: To describe cause-specific mortality in Finnish ferrochromium and stainless steel workers. METHODS: We studied Finnish stainless steel production chain workers employed between 1967 and 2004, from chromite mining to cold rolling of stainless steel, divided into sub-cohorts by production units with specific exposure patterns. We obtained causes of death for the years 1971-2012 from Statistics Finland. We calculated standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) as ratios of observed and expected numbers of deaths based on population mortality rates of the same region. RESULTS: Among 8088 workers studied, overall mortality was significantly decreased (SMR 0.77; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.70-0.84), largely due to low mortality from diseases of the circulatory system (SMR 0.71; 95% CI 0.61-0.81). In chromite mine, stainless steel melting shop and metallurgical laboratory workers, the SMR for circulatory disease was below 0.4 (SMR 0.33; 95% CI 0.07-0.95, SMR 0.22; 95% CI 0.05-0.65 and SMR 0.16; 95% CI 0.00-0.90, respectively). Mortality from accidents (SMR 0.84; 95% CI 0.67-1.04) and suicides (SMR 0.72; 95% CI 0.56-0.91) was also lower than in the reference population. CONCLUSIONS: Working in the Finnish ferrochromium and stainless steel industry appears not to be associated with increased mortality.
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