Comparison of lung cancer risks for dust workers, asbestos-cement workers and control groups

In a prospective study, 1630 men exposed to dust for long periods (foundry workers and workers in metal, ceramics, glass, stone and other industries) and 1630 controls not exposed to dust were registered between the years 1950 and 1960; the population comprised workmen living in Vienna and born in 1910 or before. Controls were matched according to age and smoking habits. Causes of deaths were followed up to 1976 from official death certificates, mainly issued by hospitals with routine autopsy. General mortality was higher in the dust-exposed group, and there was a significant excess of deaths from lung cancer: 1.5 times higher than that for controls, 1.6 times higher than that for other Viennese men of the same age and 2.1 times higher than that for Austrian men. There were no excess deaths from lung cancer up to the age of 60. It is evident that only long exposure times raise the lung cancer risk for dust-exposed workers. In a historical prospective study of asbestos-cement workers and control groups, using the same criteria of sex, age and exposure time, the preliminary data show an age-standardized relative risk of 1.5 for asbestos-cement workers compared with cement workers, but no excess risk in comparison with the local and general population.