A mortality study of workers employed in a German rock wool factory

As part of a coordinated European study including 13 plants, 2,096 workers employed in rock wool production, packing, and maintenance activities in a German factory were followed until 1979 for cause-specific mortality. There were no consistent differences between the observed and expected deaths in the study cohort on the basis of the experience of the general population. The separate analysis of persons engaged in rock wool production and packing and those engaged in maintenance yielded an excess of lung cancer deaths with borderline significance for occurrence among the maintenance workers and an elevation in standardized mortality ratio for stomach cancer related to time since first employment in the production group. Comparison with a factory-based reference cohort did not show any increased health risk for the exposed cohort. An extension of the follow-up for five years is planned in an attempt to clarify the present findings.