Introduction: national analyses of mortality in England and Wales have repeatedly shown excess
deaths from pneumonia in welders. During 1979-1990 the excess was attributable
largely to deaths from lobar pneumonia and pneumonias other than bronchopneumonia,
limited to working-aged men, and apparent in other metal fume-exposed occupations.
We assessed findings for 1991-2000 and compared the mortality pattern with that from
asthma in occupations exposed to known respiratory sensitizers.Methods: the Office of National Statistics supplied data on deaths by underlying cause among
men aged 16-74 years in England and Wales during 1991-2000, including age and last
held occupation. We abstracted data on pneumonia for occupations with exposure to
metal fume and on asthma for occupations commonly reported to surveillance schemes
as at risk of occupational asthma. We estimated expected numbers of deaths by applying
age-specific proportions of deaths by cause in the population to the total deaths by age in
each occupational group. Observed and expected numbers were compared for each
cause of death.Results: among working-aged men in metal fume-exposed occupations we found excesses of
mortality from pneumococcal and lobar pneumonia (54 deaths vs. 27.3 expected) and
from pneumonias other than bronchopneumonia (71 vs. 52.4), but no excess from these
causes at older ages, or from bronchopneumonia at any age. The attributable mortality
from metal fume (45.3 excess deaths) compared with an estimated 62.6 deaths from
occupational asthma.Conclusion: exposure to metal fume is a material cause of occupational mortality. The hazard
deserves far more attention than it presently receive
