Skip to main content
PMC home page
British Journal of Industrial Medicine logoLink to British Journal of Industrial Medicine
. 1990 Nov;47(11):721–725. doi: 10.1136/oem.47.11.721

Mortality study of fertiliser manufacturers in Iceland.

V Rafnsson 1, H Gunnarsdóttir 1
PMCID: PMC1035259  PMID: 2173946

Abstract

A retrospective cohort study was carried out on workers in a fertiliser plant to assess the risk of stomach and lung cancer. The cohort comprised 603 subjects and their death rates were compared with those of the general male population in Iceland. The study period was 1954 to 1985. The results do not provide evidence of an excess of deaths from stomach or lung cancer. Total mortality was lower than expected and even lower when the analysis was restricted to those who had worked at the plant for more than one year. Shiftwork operators had the highest SMRs for all cancers, however, with a reverse dose response according to duration of employment, indicating that this might be due to factors unrelated to manufacture of fertilisers. As examples of these factors life style and social class may be implicated, as well as possible selection of weaker subjects to do this assumed easy work.

Full text

PDF
721

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Al-Dabbagh S., Forman D., Bryson D., Stratton I., Doll R. Mortality of nitrate fertiliser workers. Br J Ind Med. 1986 Aug;43(8):507–515. doi: 10.1136/oem.43.8.507. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Armijo R., Gonzalez A., Orellana M., Coulson A. H., Sayre J. W., Detels R. Epidemiology of gastric cancer in Chile: II - Nitrate exposures and stomach cancer frequency. Int J Epidemiol. 1981 Mar;10(1):57–62. doi: 10.1093/ije/10.1.57. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Checkoway H., Mathew R. M., Hickey J. L., Shy C. M., Harris R. L., Jr, Hunt E. W., Waldman G. T. Mortality among workers in the Florida phosphate industry. I. Industry-wide cause-specific mortality patterns. J Occup Med. 1985 Dec;27(12):885–892. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Checkoway H., Mathew R. M., Hickey J. L., Shy C. M., Harris R. L., Jr, Hunt E. W., Waldman G. T. Mortality among workers in the Florida phosphate industry. II. Cause-specific mortality relationships with work areas and exposures. J Occup Med. 1985 Dec;27(12):893–896. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Cuello C., Correa P., Haenszel W., Gordillo G., Brown C., Archer M., Tannenbaum S. Gastric cancer in Colombia. I. Cancer risk and suspect environmental agents. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1976 Nov;57(5):1015–1020. doi: 10.1093/jnci/57.5.1015. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Davies J. M. Stomach cancer mortality in Worksop and other Nottinghamshire mining towns. Br J Cancer. 1980 Mar;41(3):438–445. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1980.68. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Forman D., Al-Dabbagh S., Doll R. Nitrates, nitrites and gastric cancer in Great Britain. Nature. 1985 Feb 21;313(6004):620–625. doi: 10.1038/313620a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Fraser P., Chilvers C., Beral V., Hill M. J. Nitrate and human cancer: a review of the evidence. Int J Epidemiol. 1980 Mar;9(1):3–11. doi: 10.1093/ije/9.1.3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Fraser P., Chilvers C., Day M., Goldblatt P. Further results from a census based mortality study of fertiliser manufacturers. Br J Ind Med. 1989 Jan;46(1):38–42. doi: 10.1136/oem.46.1.38. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Fraser P., Chilvers C., Goldblatt P. Census-based mortality study of fertiliser manufactures. Br J Ind Med. 1982 Nov;39(4):323–329. doi: 10.1136/oem.39.4.323. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Hartman P. E. Review: putative mutagens and carcinogens in foods. I. Nitrate/nitrite ingestion and gastric cancer mortality. Environ Mutagen. 1983;5(1):111–121. doi: 10.1002/em.2860050112. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Hill M. J., Hawksworth G., Tattersall G. Bacteria, nitrosamines and cancer of the stomach. Br J Cancer. 1973 Dec;28(6):562–567. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1973.186. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Jensen O. M. Nitrate in drinking water and cancer in northern Jutland, Denmark, with special reference to stomach cancer. Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 1982 Jun;6(3):258–267. doi: 10.1016/0147-6513(82)90016-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Miller A. B. Risk factors from geographic epidemiology for gastrointestinal cancer. Cancer. 1982 Dec 1;50(11 Suppl):2533–2540. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Rafnsson V., Gunnarsdóttir H. Mortality among farmers in Iceland. Int J Epidemiol. 1989 Mar;18(1):146–151. doi: 10.1093/ije/18.1.146. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Rafnsson V., Jóhannesdóttir S. G. Mortality among masons in Iceland. Br J Ind Med. 1986 Aug;43(8):522–525. doi: 10.1136/oem.43.8.522. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Reed P. I., Smith P. L., Haines K., House F. R., Walters C. L. Gastric juice N-nitrosamines in health and gastroduodenal disease. Lancet. 1981 Sep 12;2(8246):550–552. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(81)90939-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Stayner L. T., Meinhardt T., Lemen R., Bayliss D., Herrick R., Reeve G. R., Smith A. B., Halperin W. A retrospective cohort mortality study of a phosphate fertilizer production facility. Arch Environ Health. 1985 May-Jun;40(3):133–138. doi: 10.1080/00039896.1985.10545904. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Swaen G. M., Volovics A. Investigating dose response relations in occupational mortality studies: something to keep in mind. Br J Ind Med. 1987 Sep;44(9):642–644. doi: 10.1136/oem.44.9.642. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Tannenbaum S. R., Moran D., Rand W., Cuello C., Correa P. Gastric cancer in Colombia. IV. Nitrite and other ions in gastric contents of residents from a high-risk region. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1979 Jan;62(1):9–12. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Tannenbaum S. R. N-nitroso compounds: a perspective on human exposure. Lancet. 1983 Mar 19;1(8325):629–632. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(83)91801-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Wen C. P., Tsai S. P., Gibson R. L. Anatomy of the healthy worker effect: a critical review. J Occup Med. 1983 Apr;25(4):283–289. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Zaldívar R., Robinson H. Epidemiological investigation on stomach cancer mortality in Chileans: association with nitrate fertilizer. Z Krebsforsch Klin Onkol Cancer Res Clin Oncol. 1973 Dec 28;80(4):289–295. doi: 10.1007/BF00284363. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from British Journal of Industrial Medicine are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES