O-067 Cancer and Mortality of Queensland Coal Mine Workers Australia

Introduction Following a health survey of coal mine workers in 1982, mandatory preemployment and periodic medicals were introduced for Queensland coal mining sector. Coal mine workers now have medicals at least 5-yearly and the data are reported to Resources Safety and Health Queensland. Methods The medical registration data since the medical program started were used to form a cohort of coal mine workers, including 164,622 men and 24,389 women. The cohort was linked to the Australian death and cancer registries. The coal mine workers were grouped into opencut, underground and coal handling preparation plant workers and within these mine types by job. Results Risks of overall mortality and cancer incidence, and major causes of death and types of cancer were assessed for the group as a whole, and separately for men and women. Analyses were also carried out for specific job groups such as underground miners, dragline operators and groups of workers such as open cut maintenance workers. Risk was investigated in respect of measured exposure to respirable dust, respirable silica and diesel engine exhaust. Cancer and mortality rates were compared to the general population age standardized rates and within the cohort. The latter comparisons were adjusted for smoking status and age. These findings will be available at the Congress. Discussion A major strength of the study, unlike most occupational cohorts, is the availability of smoking data for over 99% of the cohort. Conclusion The findings are particularly important as some coal mine workers have exposure to silica and diesel engine exhaust, two known carcinogens.