The purpose of the study was to describe the variation of bladder cancer incidence according to occupational categories in the Nordic countries.
The study cohort comprised 15 million individuals older than 30 years who participated in one or more population censuses in 1960, 1970, 1980/1981, and/or 1990. Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) were estimated for 53 occupational categories.
Significantly increased SIRs were observed among tobacco workers (1.57; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.24 to 1.96), chimney sweeps (1.48; 95% CI 1.21 to 1.80), waiters (1.43; 95% CI 1.33 to 1.53), hairdressers (1.28; 95% CI 1.18 to 1.40), seamen (1.22; 95% CI 1.16 to 1.30), printers (1.21; 95% CI 1.14 to 1.30), and plumbers (1.20; 95% CI 1.13 to 1.30). A significantly decreased risk of bladder cancer was observed among gardeners (0.78, 0.75 to 0.80), forestry workers (0.74; 95% CI 0.70 to 0.78), and farmers (0.70; 95% CI 0.68 to 0.71).
The SIR of bladder cancer was overall similar across the Nordic countries. The study suggests that occupation is evidently associated with bladder cancer risk.
Journal of occupational and environmental medicine / American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 2016 Jun 10 [Epub ahead of print]
Kishor Hadkhale, Jan Ivar Martinsen, Elisabete Weiderpass, Kristina Kjaerheim, Elsebeth Lynge, Pär Sparen, Laufey Tryggvadottir, Eero Pukkala
School of Health Sciences, University of Tampere, Finland (Mr Hadkhale, Dr Pukkala); Department of Research, Cancer Registry of Norway, Institute of Population-Based Cancer Research, Oslo (Mr Martinsen, Dr Weiderpass, Dr Kjaerheim); Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Troms⊘, The Arctic University of Norway (Dr Weiderpass); Genetic Epidemiology Group, Folkhälsan Research Center (Dr Weiderpass); Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden (Dr Weiderpass, Dr Sparen); Center for Epidemiology and Screening, Institute of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (Dr Lynge); Icelandic Cancer Registry, Reykjavik, Iceland (Dr Tryggvadottir); and Finnish Cancer Registry, Institute for Statistical and Epidemiological Cancer Research (Dr Pukkala), Helsinki, Finland.