Investigators: Anne Harris, Paul Demers, Jill Hardt, Marcella Jones, Trevor Van Ingen
Filed Under: Projects
Significance:
There are approximately 60 well-established workplace carcinogens identified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). However, there are over 100 industrial chemicals and other agents that are suspected to cause cancer, and many more have never been studied. Currently, Canada lacks any rapid, low cost means to assess whether there is an increased risk associated with an exposures, occupations or industries. The major challenge is that, although Canada registers every new cancer that is diagnosed, information on occupation and workplace exposures is not included in these records. Having a way to link occupation and industry data with data from the Canadian Cancer Registry would allow researchers to identify jobs or substances that carry an increased risk of cancer.
Purpose:
The goal of this project is to identify specific occupations, industries, or exposures that lead to an increased risk of cancer, by using a database containing information from the 1991 long form census linked to the Canadian Cancer Registry data. Relationships of interest include:
- lung cancer in welders
- occupations and ovarian cancer
- cancer among wood workers
- cancer among firefighters and police
- shiftwork and cancer
- cancer in agricultural workers
Methods:
Recently, Statistics Canada linked data from the 1991 long form census to the Canadian Cancer Registry, a national database created with data from all the provincial and territorial tumour registries. The resulting database includes 2.7 million people. Our analyses of this database will identify whether there is an increased risk of cancer associated with suspected carcinogens. We will also conduct a series of analyses to see whether some groups of people with the same job or in the same industry have an increased risk.
Implications:
These analyses will contribute to the recognition of causes of cancer that can then be targeted for prevention efforts.
Current status:
A grant funding application was submitted to the Ontario WSIB Research Advisory Council. Pilot work testing the use of the cohort has commenced with initial analyses of occupation and ovarian cancer, welding and lung cancer, cancers in firefighters, and shiftwork and breast cancer.
Investigators:
Anne Harris (Occupational Cancer Research Centre)
Paul Demers (Occupational Cancer Research Centre and Cancer Care Ontario)
Jill Hardt (Occupational Cancer Research Centre)
Marcella Jones (Occupational Cancer Research Centre)
Trevor Van Ingen (Occupational Cancer Research Centre)
Collaborators:
Michael Tjepkema (Statistics Canada)
Paul Peters (Statistics Canada)
