The identification of occupational lung disease from hospital discharge data
Article Abstract:
The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 charged the US Secretary of Labor with the responsibility of developing and maintaining an ''effective program of collection, compilation, and analysis of occupational safety and health statistics.'' The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) was designated to carry out this mandate. The data are needed for studies of the causes of occupational injury and illness, establishing standards and inspection priorities, evaluating the effectiveness of control programs, and administrating health care and compensation programs. The BLS-State Department Committee on Occupational Illnesses and Injuries was subsequently convened and submitted its first report in 1988. Health department personnel from California, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin joined the BLS in reviewing only public or private hospital patient discharge data as a means of identifying cases of occupational disease. Records were reviewed for data coded according to the International Classification of Diseases, 9th edition (ICD-9); the reviewers searched for categories that were recognized as being work-related. Asbestosis was the predominant finding for all states except Wisconsin. Coal miners pneumoconiosis (lung disease produced by inhalation of irritant dusts) was the next most frequent finding. Lung diseases due to chemical fumes, organic chemical dusts, silicate and nonsiliceous dusts were found less frequently. The patterns and distributions of the identified diseases were consistent with the current knowledge. The inclusion of data in the medical record describing the industry in which a patient works and his or her occupation, as well as other pertinent information, would enhance the utility of discharge records for occupational disease surveillance. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Journal of Occupational Medicine
Subject: Health care industry
ISSN: 0096-1736
Year: 1991
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Mortality among a cohort of US man-made mineral fiber workers: 1985 follow-up
Article Abstract:
The health effects of occupational exposure to man-made mineral fiber (MMMF), such as fibrous glass and mineral wool, are not fully understood. Concern about the possible health risks first arose when laboratory animals injected with the fibers developed cancer. In humans, the diseases that are being investigated for a possible association with MMMF exposure are respiratory cancer and noncancerous respiratory diseases. This article provides updated results of a long-term follow-up study on causes of death among 16,661 MMMF workers. The subjects were employed for at least six months (in most cases one or more years) between 1940 and 1963 at one of 17 MMMF manufacturing plants in the United States. When mortality data from 1946 to 1985 were examined, small but statistically significant increases in all cancers, and specifically in respiratory cancer, were found among the workers when compared with death rates in the local population. The increase in respiratory cancer was greatest among mineral wool workers and was much smaller among glass wool and glass filament workers. This report includes mortality data from 1983 to 1985 in addition to the previous update through 1982. For the 1985 update, 98 percent of the total group of workers were confirmed as either alive, or dead from a particular cause. This most recent update suggests that the evidence supporting an association between MMMF exposure and respiratory cancer is somewhat weaker than it appeared in the previous update report through 1982. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Journal of Occupational Medicine
Subject: Health care industry
ISSN: 0096-1736
Year: 1990
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Cohort and case-control analyses of workers exposed to vinyl chloride: an update
Article Abstract:
Death rates for workers at a factory that uses vinyl chloride have been updated from 1974 to 1986. Workers at this plant may have been exposed to either vinyl chloride itself, to the dust of the plastic made from it, or neither. Seventy-six percent of the employees worked at jobs with potential exposure to vinyl chloride monomer. Among the entire group, there were increased levels of liver, lung, and brain cancer. Among workers exposed to vinyl chloride itself, the number of deaths from liver cancer was increased. However, there was no increase in the frequency of brain or lung cancer. The correlation between liver cancer and exposure to vinyl chloride was the only correlation found between the risk of disease and cumulative chemical exposure. Analysis of the liver cancers showed that cumulative exposure to the chemical only caused angiosarcomas of the liver, a cancer of the cells of the lining and connective tissues.
Publication Name: Journal of Occupational Medicine
Subject: Health care industry
ISSN: 0096-1736
Year: 1989
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- Abstracts: Role of medical screening in the prevention of occupational disease. part 2 Interpretation and communication of the results of medical field investigations
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- Abstracts: Identifying families at high risk of cardiovascular disease: alternative work site approaches
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