THE MORTALITY OF UNITED-STATES NUCLEAR SUBMARINERS, 1969-1982

A mortality study of 76,160 men who served on US nuclear submarines is reported. Indirect standardization was used to compare mortality rate s to those of the US male population. Multiplicative models were devel oped to explore patterns of mortality within the cohort. Mortality rat es for leukemia, acute myocardial infarction, and for motor vehicle ac cidents were equivalent to those of US males; rates for other causes w ere lower, generally consistent with the ''healthy worker effect.'' Mo tor vehicle accident mortality dropped during the study period, perhap s reflecting efforts to control the problem. Suicide rates were depres sed during the period of active duty. There was a suggestion that canc er mortality was associated with submarine type; however, the age dist ribution casts doubt that the excess was occupationally induced.