Gentourinary diseases mortality in mercury miners [Mortalidad por enfermedades genitourinarias en los mineros de mercurio]

Objectives: To study the mortality due to genitourinary diseases in mercury miners. Population and methods: 3.998 workers exposed to mercury in Minas de Almadén y Arrayanes S.A. were studied. The follow-up period was a century, since 1,895 to 1,994. It was completed assessing the vital status and the basic cause of death, in case of fatalities. Standardized Mortality Ratios by age, sex and calendar period were calculated. Expected deaths were obtained from age, sex and calendar period specific rates for the Spanish and Castilla-La Mancha populations. Results: A significant increase in mortality due to genitourinary diseases was found (CIE-9 codes 580 to 629), being significant with respect to the total population for nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis, with SMR of 1.69 an 95% CI 1.18 to 2.34. Mortality excesses due to nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis were higher in the metallurgy workers than in miners. A Poisson multivariate regression detected a positive trend in the mortality due to nephritis and nephrosis associated to the exposure length, with the risk increasing fivefold after 30 years of exposure to mercury. Conclusions: This paper shows an excess in the mortality due to genitourinary diseases, specially in nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis, whose estimation and significance increases when compared to the population of Castilla-La Mancha.