The burden of disease from occupational exposures

Nurminen & Karjalainen (2001) estimated  the proportion of fatalities related to occupational factors in Finland.  The average number of exposed workers in Finland was estimated from census data stratified by gender, age, occupation and industry, and from the FINJEM national job-exposure matrix.  Relative risks were obtained from review of epidemiological studies, focusing on risk estimates that were most valid for the Finnish exposure circumstances.  

The authors used AF methodology to determine the proportion of deaths in  the population attributable to occupational factors, and reported that 30% of these deaths in 1996 were caused by cancer.  Occupational lung cancer accounted for 0.9% of all deaths, and leukaemia, malignant mesothelioma and other cancers together accounted for another 0.2% of all deaths.The authors attributed 24% of bronchus and lung cancers (29% for men and 5.3% for women) to occupational exposures to combined risk factors. 

The AFs for urinary cancer were 10.3% overall, and 14.2% for men and 0.7%  for women.  Occupational risk factors also accounted for 10.9% (18.5% for males, 2.5% for females) of leukaemia deaths, the majority (17.8% for males and 2.3% for females) from electrical occupations.  In contrast, only 0.7% (males) and 0.2% (females) of leukaemia deaths were attributable to occupational exposure to benzene.  For malignant mesothelioma cases, an average of 71.3% (90% for males, 25% for females) was attributed to occupation.