Cancer among workers exposed to arsenic and other substances in a copper smelter.

A study of the mortality experience of 2802 men who worked one year or more during the period 1940-4964 at a copper smelter in Tacoma, Washington, where arsenic exposure occurred showed a twofold excess in respiratory cancer deaths. Using a time-weighted measure of exposure, a life table method for accumulating dose, and a 10-year lag period, the excess ranged from 1.5 in the lowest exposure category to 2.5 in the highest exposure category. Neither duration of exposure nor time since first exposure contributed strongly to the respiratory cancer excess. The twofold excess in respiratory cancer deaths held for workers with relatively short exposures (less than 10 years) and with a relatively short latency period (less than 20 years) as well as for those with longer exposure and latent periods. This appeared to be because the respiratory cancer excess tended to disappear with time for workers who terminated employment alive, and because workers in high-exposure jobs tended to terminate more quickly than workers in low-exposure jobs. A somewhat unorthodox analytic method showed a weak relationship between the respiratory cancer excess and exposure duration when exposure intensity was held constant. Here, arsenic exposure intensity made an independent contribution to the respiratory cancer excess.