Mortality of female workers in rubber manufacturing plant

The ten-year mortality experience of a cohort of white female production workers in a large rubber manufacturing plant is presented. An analysis of the observed and expected numbers of death from numerous causes revealed a slightly elevated overall standarized mortality ratio with an excess of deaths from both lung cancer and myocardial infarction, and a deficit of deaths from breast cancer. About two-thirds of all women in this cohort had worked, for the longest period of employment, in the manufacture of industrial products, while the remainder were engaged mostly in the manufacture of tires. Some preliminary associations between type of job and mortality experience are discussed, but a more detailed analytic investigation is required before nonoccupational risk factors can be ruled out.