Mortality and causes of death among workers exposed to phosgene in 1943-45

Mortality and causes of death from death certificates were analyzed among workers exposed to phosgene while working at a uranium-processing plant in Tennessee in 1943-45. Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) were calculated by using death rates for U.S. white males. As of 1979, SMRs for all causes and for various selected causes were similar in 694 male chemical workers chronically exposed to low levels of phosgene in 1943-45 and in 9280 male controls who worked at the same plant. SMRs for diseases of the respiratory system were 107 (14 observed vs. 13.07 expected) in the chemical workers and 119 (292 observed vs. 245.75 expected) in the controls. In a group of 106 males who were acutely exposed to high levels of phosgene, there were 41 deaths observed vs. 33.87 expected (SMR = 121; 95% confidence limits = 86 and 165). One death, occurring within 24 hours of exposure, was from pulmonary edema due to phosgene poisoning (coded to "accidental causes"). Five deaths were coded to diseases of the respiratory system (SMR = 266; 95% CL = 86 and 622); in 2 of these 5 deaths, "bronchitis" due to phosgene exposure had been reported in 1945. Among 91 female workers with acute high-level phosgene exposure, frequencies of symptoms and early health effects (pneumonitis and bronchitis) differed from those reported for the 106 male cases; preliminary data on vital status of these females are too incomplete for analysis, and further follow-up is needed.