Mortality patterns among stainless-steel workers.

Mortality patterns were studied for former workers at plants of seven companies in the United States engaged in the production of stainless and low nickel alloy steels. All deaths were included for at least a five-year period up to the end of 1977 for each plant. Age at death, whether or not the potential for exposure to nickel existed, sex, race and cause of death were recorded. Data on 4 882 deaths, including complete data on 4 487 deaths of white males, were obtained. An age-standardized proportional mortality analysis of the 4 487 deaths of white males showed that there was a slightly lower proportion of deaths from cancer, and specifically from cancer of the lung or kidney, than would be expected from the age-specific proportional mortality patterns observed in the United States as a whole. This holds regardless of whether or not there was the potential for exposure to nickel. No exposure effect was substantiated apart from variation among plants. Furthermore, no nasal cancers were observed either for white males or others, which strongly indicates that the problem previously observed among nickel refinery workers with respect to nasal cancer does not exist among workers engaged in the production and processing of stainless and low nickel alloy steels.