Update of the Texaco mortality study 1947-93: Part II

Our plain-English summary of Update of the Texaco mortality study 1947-93: Part II, by M.M. Finkelstein (Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 2000).

The study

• Author: M.M. Finkelstein
• Journal: Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• Published: 2000;57(2):143-4
• Type of article: Comment, Letter
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

In plain English

This is a letter to the editor, not a new study. The author recalculated lung cancer figures published by Divine and colleagues in their update of the Texaco mortality study. The author argued that refinery workers as a group have had lower lung cancer rates than the general population, so maintenance workers exposed to asbestos should be compared with other workers in the same cohort. The author subtracted maintenance employees from the whole cohort. This gave a lung cancer standardised mortality ratio (SMR) of 56 for 'unexposed' workers (152 deaths observed, 274 expected). The SMRs for maintenance trades were 68 for 0 to 4 years of employment, 75 for 5 to 19 years and 89 for more than 20 years. A test for trend gave a chi-square value of 12.3 (p less than 0.001). The author concluded that workers exposed to asbestos in the refinery and petrochemical sector are at increased risk of lung cancer. In a printed reply, Divine and colleagues noted that lung cancer deaths were still fewer than expected in every maintenance group. For more than 20 years they gave an SMR of 89 (95% CI 70 to 112).

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: Letter to the editor presenting the author's own recalculation of data already published by another research group (Divine et al); not an original study
• Who was studied: Workers in the Texaco mortality study as reported by Divine et al. Maintenance trade employees were compared with the rest of the cohort, which the author obtained by subtracting maintenance employees from the total cohort and labelled 'unexposed'
• Exposure: Asbestos exposure in maintenance trades in the refinery and petrochemical sector, measured as duration of employment in maintenance trades (0 to 4, 5 to 19, and more than 20 years). No fiber type is named.
• Main results:
  • 'Unexposed' workers (the rest of the cohort): 152 lung cancer deaths observed versus 274 expected, SMR 56
  • Maintenance workers employed 0 to 4 years: 219 observed, 322 expected, SMR 68. Employed 5 to 19 years: 91 observed, 121 expected, SMR 75. Employed more than 20 years: 75 observed, 84 expected, SMR 89
  • The lung cancer SMR rose with duration of employment in the maintenance trades. The author's trend test (exposure levels ranked 1 to 4) gave a chi-square value of 12.3 on 1 degree of freedom, p less than 0.001
  • In the printed reply, Divine and colleagues stated that observed lung cancer deaths were below expected in each maintenance group, with an SMR of 89 (95% CI 70 to 112) for maintenance workers potentially exposed for more than 20 years
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that the Divine et al study adds evidence that workers exposed to asbestos in the refinery and petrochemical sector are at increased risk of lung cancer

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Lung cancer.

Related studies

• Update of the Texaco mortality study 1947-93: Part II. Analyses of specific causes of death for white men employed in refining, research, and petrochemicals — B.J. Divine, C.M. Hartman, et al. (1999)
• Mortality rates among employees potentially exposed to chrysotile asbestos at two automotive parts factories — M.M. Finkelstein (1989)
• Update of mortality and cancer incidence in the Australian petroleum industry cohort — R.T. Gun, N. Pratt, et al. (2006)
• Update of a prospective study of mortality and cancer incidence in the Australian petroleum industry — R.T. Gun, N.L. Pratt, et al. (2004)
• Mortality Update of a Cohort of Canadian Petroleum Workers — A.R. Schnatter, N.C. Wojcik, et al. (2019)
• An update on pleuro-pulmonary cytopathology: Part i: Cytological diagnosis of mesothelioma and molecular cytology of lung cancer with an historical perspective — C.W. Bedrossian (2015)

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