Mortality among United States aerospace materials manufacturing workers

To evaluate long-term mortality rates among aerospace material manufacturing workers as follow-up to an earlier observed excess of nephritis/nephrosis.

Subjects were 2020 workers ever employed in the facility during 1963-2014. Vital status through 2014 was determined for all subjects and cause of death for 99.2% of 492 deaths. We computed standard mortality ratios (SMR) and internal relative risks.

SMRs for nephritis/nephrosis were unremarkable. We observed statistically significant elevated SMRs for kidney cancer among all workers and for the category "other lymphatic hematopoietic tissue cancer" (4/5 deaths from multiple myeloma) among long-term workers with potential plant exposure.

We found no evidence of elevated mortality rates for nephritis/nephrosis. Study limitations precluded robust evaluation of whether the elevated rates for kidney cancer and other lymphatic hematopoietic tissue cancer were related to occupational factors at the study site. Our findings for these two cancers warrant continued mortality follow-up.