Mortality of Italian lead smelter workers.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the health consequences of employment in the lead-smelting industry.

Methods: A mortality study of 1388 workers and laborers in production and maintenance departments was conducted in an Italian lead-smelting plant. The vital status of cohort members was determined from 1950 to 1992.

Mortality of Sardinian lead and zinc miners: 1960-88.

The mortality of 4740 male workers of two lead and zinc mines was followed up from 1960 to 1988. Exposure to respirable dust was comparable in the two mines, but the median concentration of silica in respirable dust was 10-fold higher in mine B (12.8%) than in mine A (1.

Lung cancer mortality among female mine workers exposed to silica.

A mortality cohort study (1951-1988) was conducted on 526 female workers in two lead and zinc mines in southwestern Sardinia (Italy), 310 of whom had been exposed to silica. Women exposed to silica showed a nonsignificant 38% increase in the standardized mortality ratio (SMR) for nonmalignant respiratory diseases, which was highest and statistically significant among women at the mine with the highest exposure to silica (SMR = 217; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 104, 400; based on 10 observed and 4.6 expected deaths).

Lung cancer mortality and airways obstruction among metal miners exposed to silica and low levels of radon daughters.

Starting from a cross-sectional survey in 1973, the mortality of two cohorts of Sardinian metal miners was followed through December 31, 1988. In mine A, the quartz concentration in respirable dust ranged between 0.2% and 2.

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency and cancer in a Sardinian male population: a case-control study.

A case-control study was conducted to test the hypothesis whether the genetic condition of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency is associated with a reduced risk of cancer. One hundred and eighty seven male cancer patients admitted to hospitals in Cagliari (Sardinia, Italy), between November 1984 and March 1986, were compared with 186 male patients with other diseases, except hemolytic anemia, admitted to the same hospitals in the same period. In contrast to previous reports, our study found no reduction of cancer risk in G6PD-deficient subjects.