Abstract
This paper is the first mortality cohort study undertaken in France to examine the association between fire-fighting and cause of death. The cohort investigated in this study consisted of 830 male members of the Brigade des sapeurs-pompiers de Paris (BSPP). These professional had served for a minimum of 5 years on 1 January 1977. They were monitored for a 14 year period, finishing 1 January 1991. When compared to the average French male, the Paris fire-fighters were found to have a far lower overall mortality (SMR=0.52 [0.35–0.75]). None of the cause specific SMRs were significantly different from unity. However a greater number of deaths than expected was observed for genito-urinary cancer (SMR=3.29), digestive cancer (SMR=1.14), respiratory cancer (SMR=1.12) and ‘cerebrovascular disease’ (SMR=1.16). The low overall SMR observed was consistent with the healthy worker effect. As for cause specific SMRs, they will be confirmed or invalidated by a further analysis as the follow-up of this cohort is being carried on.
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Deschamps, S., Momas, I. & Festy, B. Mortality amongst Paris fire-fighters. Eur J Epidemiol 11, 643–646 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01720297
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01720297