INCIDENCE OF CANCER AMONG WELDERS OF MILD-STEEL AND OTHER SHIPYARD WORKERS

The incidence of cancer among 4571 shipyard workers with first employm ent between 1940 and 1979, including 623 welders of mild steel, was in vestigated in a historical cohort study. The loss to follow up was 1.1 %. The total number of deaths was 1078 (974.5 expected) and there were 408 cases of cancer upsilon 361.3 expected. Sixty five cases of lung cancer were found upsilon 46.3 expected based on the national rates fo r males. Four pleural mesotheliomas had occurred (1.2 expected), none among the welders. An excess of lung cancers was found among the welde rs (nine cases upsilon 3.6 expected). There were six cases of lung can cer upsilon 1.6 expected in a high exposure group of 255 welders. A su rvey of the smoking habits as of 1984 indicated 10%-20% more daily smo kers among the shipyard production workers than among Norwegian males. Exposure to smoking and asbestos were confounding variables in this s tudy.