Lymphatic and haematopoietic cancer mortality in a population attending school adjacent to styrene-butadiene facilities, 1963-1993

Study objective-To evaluate the risk of mortality from lymphatic and haemat opoietic cancers and other causes among students. Design-The study used school records, yearbooks, and Texas Department of He alth records for the school years 1963-64 to 1992-93 to construct a cohort of 15 403 students. Three mortality databases were searched to identify dea ths, and mortality rates in the cohort were compared with mortality rates f rom the United States and Texas. Computed standardised mortality ratios and 95% confidence intervals were used. Setting-Eastern Texas high school adjacent to facilities that have been pro ducing synthetic styrene-butadiene since 1943. Main results-338 deaths were identified. The all causes standardised mortal ity ratio was 0.84 (95% confidence intervals 0.74, 0.95) for men and 0.89 ( 0.73, 1.09) for women. The standardised mortality ratio for all lymphatic a nd haematopoietic cancers was 1.64 (95% confidence intervals 0.85, 2.87) fo r men and 0.47 (0.06, 1.70) for women. The slight male excess in lymphatic and haematopoietic cancers was stronger among men who attended school for t wo years or less. Conclusions-The overall mortality from lymphatic and haematopoietic cancer among the students was little different from that of the United States as a whole. A moderate excess for men, predominantly among the shorter-term stu dents, was offset by a deficit among women. These variations are compatible with random fluctuations; the overall pattern is not indicative of an effe ct of environmental exposure sustained while attending the high school.