Redmond C K, Emes J J, Mazumdar S, Magee P C, Kamon E
J Environ Pathol Toxicol. 1979 May-Jun;2(5):75-96.
This paper investigates possible relationships between heat stress of steelworkers and cause-specific mortality patterns. Prior to field investigation, jobs were identified which appeared to involve heat stress exposure. A selected sample of these jobs was surveyed for assessing the workers' environmental and metabolic heat load. These data were utilized to form different categories of heat stress. Mortality patterns of workers in jobs falling in each of the heat stress categories were analyzed by length of exposure for those workers from a cohort of 59,000 steelworkers who held one of the surveyed jobs. The comparison group consisted of workers who never worked in any of the work areas in which job were surveyed but were members of the same cohort. Findings of interest are: a deficit in mortality from cardiovascular disease for workers in jobs involving higher levels of environmental heat exposure; a high risk of death from cardiovascular disease for workers with less than 6 months of exposure and a downward trend in mortality for workers who remained on the job, indicating a possible relationship between inability to work in jobs involving heat stress and health; and, increased risks of digestive disease mortality among workers exposed to higher levels of environmental heat.
本文研究了钢铁工人的热应激与特定病因死亡率模式之间的可能关系。在进行实地调查之前，先确定了那些似乎涉及热应激暴露的工作岗位。从这些岗位中选取了一部分样本进行调查，以评估工人的环境热负荷和代谢热负荷。利用这些数据形成了不同类别的热应激。对于来自59000名钢铁工人队列中从事被调查工作之一的工人，根据暴露时长分析了处于每个热应激类别的工作岗位上的工人的死亡率模式。对照组由从未在任何被调查工作区域工作过但属于同一队列的工人组成。有趣的发现有：从事环境热暴露水平较高工作的工人心血管疾病死亡率较低；暴露时间少于6个月的工人患心血管疾病死亡的风险较高，而继续从事该工作的工人死亡率呈下降趋势，这表明在涉及热应激的工作中无法工作可能与健康状况有关；以及暴露于较高环境热水平的工人消化系统疾病死亡风险增加。
