A mortality survey of men engaged in the manufacture of organic dyes.

The mortality experience of 342 employees assigned to three aromatic amine-based dye production areas was examined in relation to duration of employment and interval since entry into these areas. No deaths due to bladder cancer were observed, and no statistically significant increases in mortality by work area or duration of exposure within work area were found, based on comparison with the mortality experience of the U.S. white male population. There were incidental findings of more digestive malignancies than expected in one production area, and more digestive and respiratory malignancies than expected in a second area; none of these were statistically significant. Because the digestive malignancies were not site-specific, and because similarities in specific job assignments were lacking for both digestive and respiratory malignancies, it is unlikely that these findings were work related. Nonetheless, in subsequent assessments of the present cohort and other populations exposed to similar materials an effort should be made to evaluate the occurrence of digestive and respiratory malignancies.