Mortality patterns of American merchant seamen 1973-1978

Among 1,922 deaths in the American merchant marine population who were patients in the United States Public Health Service Hospital system in 1973-78, 46% were cancer associated. Eighteen percent of all deaths were due to heart disease. This pattern represented a reversal of the pattern found among patients of acute general care hospitals nationwide for the year 1975. Respiratory cancer amounted to 19.3% of the total, more than twice the number of such deaths among non-seamen patients. These patterns were consistent across a six-year time period. The finding in this study of an excess of cancer-associated deaths, particularly respiratory cancer, could be indicative of an occupationally associated risk. Data on the total population of merchant seamen at risk and of seamen deaths which may have occurred outside of the United States Public Health Service Hospital system are required to test more definitely the hypothesis of an occupational risk of cancer--especially lung cancer--among American merchant seamen.