Mortality Among Ship-breaking Workers—-A Retrospective Cohort Study

Abstract

PP-30-161 Abstract: Background/Aims: Taiwan was ever a ship-breaking kingdom. From the late 1960s to the late 1980s, the port city of Kaohsiung witnessed one of the most thriving ship demolition industries in the world. The OSHA agency stated that ship breaking also posed the following dangers: (1) Exposure of hazardous substances as the demolition sometimes released toxic or explosive substances such as asbestos, PCBs, heavy metals, and waste fuel; (2) hazard work activities; and (3) hazard work condition. Among these, there is a need for long-term follow-up study to examine the health risks of exposure of hazardous substances. Hence, the aim of this study was to study the cause of death and standardized mortality ratios in ship-breaking cohort. Methods: The national mortality data during the years from 1985 to 2008 were obtained from the Office of Statistics of the Department of Health in Taiwan. The death record is defined according to the International Classification of Disease, Injury, and Causes of Death (9th revision). Standardized mortality rates (SMR) for various diseases were calculated on the basis of Taiwan standard population mortality. Results: The results showed that cause of death of ship-breaking cohort among all cause (SMR = 1.50, 95% CI = 1.41–1.60), cancer (SMR = 1.43, 95% CI = 1.27–1.61), liver cirrhosis (SMR = 10.77, 95% CI = 8.35–13.68), all accidents (SMR = 2.45, 95% CI = 2.09–2.85), and special region cancers as oral and nasopharyngeal (SMR = 2.90, 95% CI = 2.20–3.76), esophagus (SMR = 2.47, 95% CI = 1.44–3.95), liver (SMR = 5.31, 95% CI = 4.12–6.73), and lung (SMR = 1.60, 95% CI = 1.20–2.09) were significantly higher mortality than general Taiwan population. Conclusion: The studies are providing the reference of health care policy for alive ship-breaking worker in Taiwan and still precede ship-breaking industry in development countries.