Mortality pattern in men with pneumoconiosis in Poland.

Mortality study was carried out on the cohort of 11,224 men with coal workers' pneumoconiosis or silicosis diagnosed during the period 1970-1985. The cohort was selected from the register of occupational diseases and was traced up to the end of 1991. The general male population of Poland was a reference group. The study showed small but significant excess of total mortality (SMR = 115; p < 0.01). The analysis of death causes revealed an elevated mortality from infectious diseases, among which tuberculosis was most prevalent (SMR = 212; p < 0.01) and from pneumoconioses predominant in diseases of the respiratory system, (SMR = 426; p < 0.01) and lung cancer (SMR = 116; p < 0.01). The comparison of the prevalence of smoking in the population under study with that in the reference general male population of Poland indicated that this habit is mostly responsible for the excess of lung cancer deaths. This finding contradicts the hypothesis that there is a causal relationship between exposure to dusts containing crystalline silica, pneumoconiosis and lung cancer.