RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Cancer risk among firefighters and police in the Ontario workforce
JF Occupational and Environmental Medicine
JO Occup Environ Med
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP oemed-2021-108146
DO 10.1136/oemed-2021-108146
A1 Jeavana Sritharan
A1 Tracy L Kirkham
A1 Jill MacLeod
A1 Niki Marjerrison
A1 Ashley Lau
A1 Mamadou Dakouo
A1 Chloë Logar-Henderson
A1 Tenzin Norzin
A1 Nathan L DeBono
A1 Paul A Demers
YR 2022
UL http://oem.bmj.com/content/early/2022/03/29/oemed-2021-108146.abstract
AB Objective Firefighters and police often work in high-stress, complex environments with known and suspected carcinogenic exposures. We aimed to characterise cancer incidence among firefighters and police.Methods The Occupational Disease Surveillance System (ODSS) was used to identify workers employed as firefighters or police in Ontario. A cohort of workers were identified using lost-time workers’ compensation claims data and followed for cancer in the Ontario Cancer Registry (1983–2020). Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate HRs and 95% CIs for primary site-specific cancer diagnoses adjusted for age at start of follow-up, birth year and sex.Results A total of 13 642 firefighters and 22 595 police were identified in the cohort. Compared with all other workers in the ODSS, firefighters and police had increased risk of prostate cancer (firefighters: HR=1.43, 95% CI 1.31 to 1.57; police: HR=1.47, 95% CI 1.35 to 1.59), colon cancer (firefighters: HR=1.39, 95% CI 1.19 to 1.63; police: HR=1.39, 95% CI 1.21 to 1.60) and skin melanoma (firefighters: HR=2.38, 95% CI 1.99 to 2.84; police: HR=2.27, 95% CI 1.96 to 2.62). Firefighters also had increased risk of cancer of the pancreas, testis and kidney, as well as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and leukaemia. Police had increased risk of thyroid, bladder and female breast cancer. When compared directly with the police, firefighters had an elevated risk of mesothelioma and testicular cancer.Conclusions Firefighters and police demonstrated some similar as well as some unique cancer risks. Findings from this larger worker population may have important implications for workplace and policy-level changes to improve preventative measures and reduce potential exposures to known carcinogenic hazards.Data are available upon reasonable request. Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available.