Mortality among firefighters from three northwestern United States cities

cycle crashes in California from 1983 to 1986. A previous report found that fatal- and severeinjury crash rates in 1985 were almost twice as high for racing design motorcycles compared with the standard street design types, and about four times as high compared with touring or dual-purpose motorcycles. This report compares driver, vehicle, and crash characteristics among crashes involving motorcycles of different designs, using California crash data for 1985. A higher percentage of injured racing design motorcycle operators were under the age of 25 compared with operators of street motorcycles. The relative frequency of injury crashes involving speeding was considerably higher among racing design than among street design motorcycles even after driver age, time and l~ation of crash occurrence, and engine displacement were all taken into account. No systematic evidence that injury crashes involving racing and street design motorcycles differed by time, day, or location of occurrence was found, and motorcycles did not appear to have different exposure miles by either design type. The Impact of Legislation on Self-Reported Safety Belt Use in a Working Population. J. E. Fielding, K. K. Knight, and R. Z.

Goetzel. Journal of Occupational 34( 7).

Medicine,

To assess the impact of safety belt laws, we compared self-reported use of safety belts among employed residents of states with primary, secondary, and no laws, in a group of 17,830 volunteer health profile participants. Failure to wear safety belts at least 80% of the time was reported by 22% of subjects covered by secondary laws, and 39% of those not covered by any law. Industrial

Safety

Mortafity among Firefighters Northwestern United States

from Three Cities. P. A.

Deters, N. J. Heyer, and L. Rosenstock. British Journal of Industrial Medicine, Sept. 1992, 49(9), 664-670. To explore whether exposure among firefighters to fne smoke could lead to an increased I90

risk of cancer, lung disease, and heart disease, the mortality of 4,546 firefighters who were employed by the cities of Seattle and Tacoma, WA and Portland, OR for at least one year between 1944 and 1979 were compared with United States national mortalities and with mortality of police officers from the same cities. Between 1945 and 1989, 1,169 deaths occurred in the study population, and 1,162 death certificates (99%) were collected. Mortality due to all causes, ischaemic heart disease, and most other nonmalignant diseases was less than expected based upon United States rates for white men. There was no excess risk of overall mortality from cancer but excesses of brain tumours (standardized mortality ratio [SMR] = 2*09,95% confidence interval [CI] 1*3-3.2) and lymphatic and haemato~ti~ cancers (SMR = 1*31,95% CI = 0*9-1*8) were found. Younger firefighters (~40 years of age) appeared to have an excess risk of cancer (SMR = 1.45, 95% CI 0*8-2*39), primarily due to brain cancer (SMR = 3.75, 95% CI l-2-8*7). The risk of lymphatic and haematopoetic cancers was greatest for men with at least 30 years of exposed employment (SMR = 2.05, 95% CI l*l-3*6), especially for leukaemia (SMR = 2*60,96% CI l*O-5.4). Occupational Exposures during Abrasive Blasting Removal of Lead-Based Paint on a Highway Bridge. A. Sussell, R. Tubbs, and

M. Montopoli. Applied Occupational Environmental Hygiene, 7(8), 497-499.

and

A request was received by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), from the Kentucky Cabinet for Health Resources for a NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluation (HHE) to evaluate occupational safety and health hazards during repainting of the Brent Spense Bridge, a double-level, interstate highway bridge over the Ohio River, connecting Covington, Kentucky, with Cincinnati, Ohio. The request concerned exposures of the construction workers to lead within containment structures during abrasive blasting removal of lead-based paint from the bridge. Recently, containment of abrasive blasting has been used to reduce fugitive lead emissions,