Mortalidad en trabajadores siderúrgicos: estudio retrospectivo 1985-1994 / Mortality among steel workers: a 10 years follow up

Background: Some studies have reported an increased incidence of lung, kidney and colon cancer among steel workers, however this has not been an universal observation. Aim: To study the causes of death in a group of Chilean steel workers. Subjects and methods: Between January 1985 and December 1994, 4718 steel workers were followed. Their crude and standardized death rates, adjusted for age and diagnosis, were calculated. Results: During the study period 153 deaths were registered (3.2 percent), 78 in active workers (2.7 percent), 68 in retired workers (5.9 percent) and 7 in hired workers (1 percent). Main causes of death were liver cirrhosis (19 percent), gastric cancer (9.2 percent) and myocardial infarction (8.5 percent). Cirrhosis was the only cause with a significantly higher standardized adjusted rate (=171). Conclusions: We did not find elevated standardized mortality rates for respiratory diseases, lung or kidney cancer in this group of steel workers. Thus, our results did not show a specific occupational risk among these workers

Hipoacusia sensorioneural por ruidos: resultados de un estudio longitudinal en trabajadores siderúrgicos / Neurosensorial hearing loss due to noise: results of a longitudinal study in siderurgical workers

One thousands two hundred thirty two workers exposed to low, moderate and high noise levels were studied. All had a normal admission audiogram and at least one further audiogram. Four hundred forty five subjects, aged 40.4+-8.2 years old, were exposed to low environmental noise, 341 subject aged 39+-7.8 years old were exposed to moderate noise and 446, aged 39.2+-7.3 years old were exposed to high noise for 16.7+-8.1, 14.8+-7.7 and 15.2+-7.6 years old respectively. The prevalence of hearing lost was 7.2, 11.7 and 13.2 per cent among those exposed to low, moderate or high environmental noise. According to our legislation 0.4, 1.5 and 2.5 per cent of those workers had a hearing impairment entitled to compensation. The regretion slope for hearing loss was 0.5, 0.7 and 0.8 dB/year of age in workers exposed to low, moderate and high noise levels respectively. A significant effect of noise was observed after the age of exposed to moderate levels. According to our safe noise exposure criteria, we are accepting that 18.2 per cent of workers will suffer a disabling hearing loss at the end of their job life and that 0.4 per cent will not attain an economic compensation in spite of their impairment