Tata Steel workers 1.5 more likely to die before retirement than average Dutch: report

Employees of Tata Steel have a 1.5 times higher chance of dying before retirement than men of the same age in the rest of the Netherlands, EenVandaag discovered based on its own research. Between 1975 and 2010, almost 2,400 steel factory workers died before 65. Compared to the national mortality rate among men up to that age, that is an excess mortality of 46 percent.

It has been known for years that harmful substances emitted by Tata Steel pose health risks to locals living near the factory in IJmuiden. Multiple reports by the RIVM and GGD have shown that people in surrounding villages have a greater risk of developing certain diseases or dying earlier. So it is not much of a surprise that this is even more true for the Tata Steel workers who spend years working right on top of the source of the emissions.

EenVandaag delved into the archives of the Hoogovens Museum library and the Noord-Hollands Archief, looking for obituaries in the staff magazines De Gijper, Hoogovens Staal, Focus IJmuiden, and Overstaal. The study focused on men under the age of 65 because many people lose touch with their employer and the company magazine after retirement.

The program found that at least 2,388 male Tata Steel employees died before their retirement between 1975 and 2010. Based on Statistics Netherlands figures on Dutch mortality for the same period and men of the same age, converted to the size of the company over the years, 1,635 male employees should have died.

About half of the “in memoriam” messages in the company magazines stated the cause of death, either outright or in veiled terms like “long fought,” “the disease everyone fears,” or “unfair fight.” Of these messages, 67 percent died of an incurable disease and 22 percent died after becoming unwell at work. Traffic accidents (4 percent), short illness (3 percent), and industrial accidents (1 percent) follow at a great distance.

Almost half of the messages included information about the number of years of service. They show that over 60 percent of the involved men had worked for the company for 20 to 40 years. In over 60 percent of deaths, the man was over 55.

“The number of years of service worked is relevant, because that really says something about the long-term exposure to certain harmful substances. And that exposure ultimately leads to inflammatory processes in the lungs,” Onno van Schayck, a professor of preventive medicine at Maastricht University, told the program. "If you are continuously exposed, inflammation occurs that can lead to COPD, cardiovascular diseases, and various types of cancer. That is why you see the peak in deaths among the older generation of employees.”

“These are really considerable numbers,” Van Schayck told EenVandaag. “This is not a few people, this is really about a lot of people.”

Towards 2010, the number of dead Tata Steel employees starts to increase. However, according to EenVandaag, this has more to do with Tata outsourcing maintenance, cleaning, and transport activities than actually fewer people dying. According to the program, there are around 3,000 people who work on the steel factory site but are not on the Tata Steel payroll.

“Tata Steel could quickly say: ‘We see that the statistics are much better at the moment, so it is a problem of the past.’ But I think that a significant number of vulnerable people are no longer included in the figures,” Van Schayck said. “It has become clear quite recently that between 2015 and 2022, Tata Steel saw an increase of almost 60 percent in PAH emissions.” According to the professor, the emission of these carcinogenic substances shows that the problem is still current and even bigger than ever.

EenVandaag presented its findings to Tata Steel and received this response: “Our people are the linchpin on which Tata Steel operates. The health of everyone, including our people, is of course very important to us.”