Keywords: Adult; Cause of Death; Chromium Alloys - adverse effects; Finland - epidemiology; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Lung Neoplasms - etiology - mortality; Metallurgy; Mining; Occupational Diseases - etiology - mortality; Occupational Exposure - prevention & control - statistics & numerical data; Respiration Disorders - chemically induced - mortality; Risk factors; Stainless Steel - adverse effects; Wounds and Injuries - etiology - mortality

Abstract: Although stainless steel has been produced for more than a hundred years, exposure-related mortality data for production workers are limited.; To describe cause-specific mortality in Finnish ferrochromium and stainless steel workers.; We studied Finnish stainless steel production chain workers employed between 1967 and 2004, from chromite mining to cold rolling of stainless steel, divided into sub-cohorts by production units with specific exposure patterns. We obtained causes of death for the years 1971-2012 from Statistics Finland. We calculated standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) as ratios of observed and expected numbers of deaths based on population mortality rates of the same region.; Among 8088 workers studied, overall mortality was significantly decreased (SMR 0.77; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.70-0.84), largely due to low mortality from diseases of the circulatory system (SMR 0.71; 95% CI 0.61-0.81). In chromite mine, stainless steel melting shop and metallurgical laboratory workers, the SMR for circulatory disease was below 0.4 (SMR 0.33; 95% CI 0.07-0.95, SMR 0.22; 95% CI 0.05-0.65 and SMR 0.16; 95% CI 0.00-0.90, respectively). Mortality from accidents (SMR 0.84; 95% CI 0.67-1.04) and suicides (SMR 0.72; 95% CI 0.56-0.91) was also lower than in the reference population.; Working in the Finnish ferrochromium and stainless steel industry appears not to be associated with increased mortality.

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