Mortality of iron and steel workers in Korea

Background The mortality experience of iron and steel workers from modern plants in developing countries has not been extensively described. Methods Mortality at two Korean iron and steel manufacturing complexes was analyzed using Poisson regression methods with both direct and indirect standardization. Work histories were linked with a national mortality registry. Workers (44,974) hired beginning in 1968 were followed from 1992 to 2001. Results The 806 deaths observed during 10 years of follow‐up comprised 2% of the population at risk and represented a large healthy worker effect (HWE) for all causes (SMR = 0.59, 95% CI = 0.55–0.63) and for cancer (SMR = 0.79, 95% CI = 0.70–0.90). Mortality at subsidiaries was considerably higher than at the parent plants (SRR = 1.71, 95% CI = 1.47–1.99). Relative mortality rates declined with employment duration: > 20 years had significantly reduced mortality (SRR = 0.59, 95% CI = 0.43–0.82) compared to duration