D: Mortality among industrial workers exposed to formaldehyde

ABSTRACT-A historical cohort study evaluated the mortality experience of 26,561 workers employed in 10 formaldehyde-producing or-using facilities. Approximately 600,000 person-years of follow-up accrued as workers were followed to January 1, 1980. Estimates of historical exposure to formaldehyde by job were developed by project industrial hygienists using monitoring data available from participating plants, comments from long-term workers, and comprehensive monitoring data specifically collected for this study. Mortality from all causes combined was about as expected [standardized mortality ratio (SMR) =96) based on mor-tality rates of the general U.S. population. Significantly fewer deaths occurred from infective and parasitic diseases (SMR=51) and from accidents (SMR=72) than expected. Cancer overall was not related to formaldehyde exposure. Workers exposed to form-aldehyde had slight excesses for Hodgkin's disease and cancer