A general mortality study of Prodcution workers in the paint and coatings manufacturing industry

Our plain-English summary of A general mortality study of Prodcution workers in the paint and coatings manufacturing industry, by R.W. Morgan, S.M. Hyg, S.D. Kaplan, et al (1981).

The study

• Authors: R.W. Morgan, S.M. Hyg, S.D. Kaplan, W.R. Gaffey
• Published: Journal of Occupational Medicine 23(1):13-21 January (1981)
• Type of article: Journal article
• Our copy: from Johns-Manville's own medical library. The article is still under copyright, so we describe it here rather than post it.

In plain English

This was a preliminary report of a cohort mortality study. It covered 16,243 men who had worked at least one year making paint or varnish and whose employment ended after January 1, 1946, with follow-up to December 31, 1976. The authors compared the workers' deaths with the number expected from U.S. white male death rates. They also looked at overlapping subgroups defined by job exposure, such as pigments, solvents, lacquer, and tub and tank cleaning. Asbestos, used as a filler, was among the toxic materials used in at least one plant. No deaths from mesothelioma were found. Overall mortality was lower than expected (SMR 86). Colon and rectal cancer were raised (SMRs 138 and 139, from 65 and 26 deaths), which was a statistically significant excess. Liver cancer was raised on small numbers (13 deaths), and the increase was statistically significant in the pigments subgroup. Lung cancer was close to expected (SMR 98). The authors had no smoking data. They concluded that paint and coatings production carried no major mortality risk, although certain causes of death required further investigation.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Retrospective cohort mortality study (preliminary report). Observed deaths were compared with deaths expected from U.S. white male rates, using standardized mortality ratios (SMRs).
• Who was studied: 16,243 men who worked at least one year in paint or varnish manufacture and whose employment ended after January 1, 1946, in plants of National Paint and Coatings Association member companies. Follow-up ran to December 31, 1976. 2,670 had died and 985 could not be traced.
• Exposure: Work in paint and coatings production, grouped into overlapping subgroups by exposure: pigments, solvents excluding lacquer, lacquer, vehicle production, tub and tank cleaning, and varnish cooking. At least one plant had used asbestos (as a filler), along with chromium, lead, mercury and nickel compounds, silica, talc, benzene and arsenicals. No results were reported separately for asbestos exposure.
• Main results:
  • Whole cohort: overall SMR was 86, which the authors attributed to the healthy worker effect.
  • Whole cohort: colon cancer SMR 138 (65 deaths) and rectal cancer SMR 139 (26 deaths).
  • Whole cohort: the combined colon and rectal cancer excess of nearly 20 deaths over expected was statistically significant.
  • Liver cancer was increased most markedly in cohort 2 (pigments, SMR 273) and cohort 4 (lacquer, SMR 255).
  • Liver cancer: 13 deaths in the total work force. The increase was statistically significant in cohort 2 (pigments).
  • Whole cohort: skin cancer SMR was 140, based on 12 deaths, which was not statistically significant (p greater than 0.10).
  • Of the 12 skin cancer deaths, 10 were malignant melanoma.
  • Whole cohort: lung cancer SMR 98, compared with SMR 81 for respiratory disease.
  • Whole cohort: leukemia SMR was 92.
  • Cohort 4 (lacquer), which had past benzene exposure: SMR 212 based on eight observed deaths, in the authors' discussion of lymphatic and hematopoietic cancer. The authors said this required further investigation.
  • No deaths from mesothelioma were found.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that working in paint and coatings production imposes no major mortality risk, although certain diagnostic categories require further investigation.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The exposure subgroups overlap because workers had multiple exposures, which made the findings difficult to interpret.
  • No subgroup of any size had pure exposure to a single function or product.
  • Men lost to follow-up were counted as alive, so SMRs are slightly underestimated to the extent that deaths were missed.
  • There were no smoking data.
  • Liver cancer numbers were small, and liver cancer is prone to misdiagnosis.
  • White male rates were used as the comparison even though some workers were black, so skin cancer SMRs are underestimated.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Mesothelioma, Lung Cancer.

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