Social
Workplace racial diversity, metalworking fluid exposure, and cardiovascular disease mortality among Black US autoworkers Hilary Colbeth* Hilary Colbeth Corinne Riddell Marilyn Thomas Sally Picciotto John Balmes
Objectives Factors promoting cardiovascular resilience among Black adults are not well understood. In particular, work as a social determinant of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and occupational exposures to particulate matter and other cardiovascular hazards remain understudied in Black working populations. Our objective was to assess the risk of CVD mortality among Black autoworkers from the United Autoworkers-General Motors cohort study under several hypothetical scenarios: increased exposure to workplace racial diversity, reduced metalworking fluid exposure, and both interventions together.
Methods We analyzed longitudinal data on 5,043 workers from the Detroit General Motors plant (follow-up 1941-2015), with 1,458 observed CVD deaths. We applied the parametric g-formula to assess risk under hypothetical scenarios with set values for plantwide racial diversity and selected exposure limits for metalworking fluid, separately and jointly.
Results We compared two hypothetical joint intervention scenarios: (1) plantwide racial diversity set to its median observed value (54% Black workers) and metalworking fluid at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health recommended exposure limit of 0.50 mg/m3 [moderate exposures] and, (2) racial diversity was set to its maximum observed value (64% Black workers) and the metalworking fluid limit was 0.05 mg/m3 [protective/low exposures]. At age 80, the CVD mortality risk difference per 1000 was 14.80 (95% confidence interval: 1.40, 27.00). These results were similar to those observed when increasing racial diversity alone.
Conclusions Our findings, based on Black autoworkers from an iconic cohort, reveal strong associations between CVD mortality and plantwide racial diversity and a more moderate relationship with MWF exposure. Our study demonstrates the importance of accounting for social conditions along with environmental exposures in occupational health effects research among historically racialized populations.
