Mortality ofcokeplant workers intheNetherlands

Duringtheproduction ofcoke, large quantities ofcokeovengasareemitted. Peoplewhowork onthetoporonthesidesofcokeovensare exposedtothisovengas,whichcontains a rangeofcarcinogenic chemicals. To investigate thecancerrisks undertheseworkconditions, aretrospective studywasundertaken. In total 11399formerworkerswereenrolled in thestudy. Ofthese, 5639hadworkedinthecoke plantforatleast sixmonthsbetween1945and 1969.Theother5740hadworkedinanother plantduringthesameperiodandformeda non-exposed groupforcomparison. Thestudy groupwasfollowed upuntil 1984formortality. Thecausesofdeathwereobtained fromthe Central BureauofStatistics. Among thecoke ovenworkerssignificantly higherdeathrates werefoundforlungcancerandnon-malignant respiratory disease.Mortalityin the byproduct section wassimilar tothatexpected. Amongworkers inthetardistillery theratefor lungcancerwashigherthanexpected. Therisk forgastric cancerand non-malignant respiratory disease amongtheworkers ofthecoke shipping department wasincreased butthe SMRsdidnotreachstatistical significance. No datawerecollected aboutindividual smoking habitsor socioeconomic stateofthestudy subjects andthepossibility thattheriskfound couldbe attributed tothesefactors cannot be ruledout.Ithasbeenstatedby other investigators, however,thattheeffect ofnot controlling forsmokingtendstobemodest.