Mortality of employees of two cotton mills in North Carolina.

Carl Ortmeyer, Ph.D. A lthough respiratory morbidity associated with exposure to cotton dust in the primary textile industry has been extensively studied and documented, relatively little research has been directed toward assessment of morbidity and mortality of former cotton textile workers. There are frequent anecdotal references to early retirement and death in the early literature on cotton, flax, and hemp exposure.1-4 Reviews of the 1880-1932Dicennial Supplements to the Annual Report of the Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages in England and Wales revealed increased overall mortality for employed males (particularly excesses among older cardroom and blowroom operatives) for cardiovascular, renal, and respiratory disease. Schilling6 reported that due to classification practices in Britain prior to 1939, a substantial proportion of cardiovascular deaths should have been classified as respiratory deaths, but were not because with multiple certification, cardiovascular and renal deaths were given priority. Recent mortality studies of cotton textile workers conducted in the United States have not revealed the excess mortality of earlier studies. Henderson and Enterline studied cotton textile workers as controls to asbestos workers in Georgia. Although overall mortality did not differ from asbestos building product workers and asbestos friction material workers, there was no evidence of excess respiratory deaths among cotton textile workers. Similarly, Daum and associatess studied a three mill cohort in South Carolina. They, too, found no overall increase in mortality, but did observe some increases in cardiovascular deaths among men and women and among women, some excess in respiratory deaths. The purpose of this report is to examine mortality patterns in a mature cohort thought to have had significant exposure to cotton dust and with welldocumented work histories.