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Biomedical subjects

R M Park

Publications and source records attributed to R M Park.

22 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1988

Causes of death among workers in a bearing manufacturing plant.

Recent studies identify digestive cancer excesses among workers exposed to cutting fluids, abrasive dusts, and oil smoke. Standardized proportional mortality and mortality odds ratio studies were carried out for a ball bearing plant. Cause of death and work histories were obtained for 702 of 768 hourly employees with ten or more years' service who died between 1969 and 1982. Union and company records were used to define exposure measures. The major findings were significant excesses in proportional mortality ratios (PMR) from stomach cancer (PMR = 2.0) and rectal cancer (PMR = 3.1) among white men. After control for age at death, there was a significant association between stomach cancer and precision grinding exposures, consisting primarily of direct contact with water-based cutting fluids (usually emulsified oils) and their aerosols. Some straight oils and synthetic cutting fluids were used as well. The pattern of stomach cancer is consistent with previous findings and suggests an association with the soluble oil cutting fluids.

Aged↗
PubMed1987

Use of the logistic regression model for the analysis of proportionate mortality data.

A new statistical analysis strategy for proportionate mortality data is proposed. It is assumed that the occupational exposure, if it has an effect on mortality, increases the rate of death for some subset of causes by a multiplicative factor while not affecting the rates for the remaining causes of death. The unconditional logistic regression model is shown to provide a structure for the data analysis, with one of the predictors being the logit of the probability in the reference population that death was due to the affected causes. Using this model, one can estimate the effect of exposure while simultaneously controlling for a number of potential confounding and selection variables. Also, this model avoids the problems of comparing standardized proportionate mortality ratios, which are indirectly standardized measures. The model is demonstrated on a set of proportionate mortality data for factory workers from the northeastern United States.

Epidemiologic Methods↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A neurological disease cluster at a manufacturing plant.

A case-control study was conducted an at automotive carburetor plant to investigate exposures associated with a cluster of cases exhibiting neurological symptoms that resembled multiple sclerosis. Eighteen cases were identified with symptom onset between 1970 and 1985. Four controls per case were selected randomly from the plant population, and they were matched by year of birth, gender, and ethnicity. From work histories and telephone interviews, cumulative exposures for 10 chemical or process categories were computed, based on rank estimates of exposure levels. Mantel-Haenszel procedures and logistic regression modeling produced statistically significant relative risks associated with die-casting and organophosphate exposures, using unweighted and latency-weighted cumulative exposures. The study was hampered by the inability to pursue further clinical neurological evaluation of the cases, by the small number of cases, and by uncertainties of exposure assessment. A delayed neuropathy arising from organophosphate exposure in hydraulic and machining fluids is proposed.

Adult↗