Incidence of cancer among Nordic police officers
Menée à partir de données 1961-2005 des registres des cancers en Finlande, Islande, Norvège et Suède portant sur 38 523 hommes et 1 998 femmes exerçant la profession d'officier de police, cette étude analyse le risque de cancer lié à la pollution de l'air, au travail de nuit et au rayonnement des radars
Police work may expose officers to various circumstances that have potential for increasing their risk of cancer, including traffic-related air pollution, night shift work, and radiation from radars. In this study, we examined the incidence of cancer among Nordic male and female police officers. We utilize data from the Nordic Occupational Cancer (NOCCA) project, which linked census data on occupations from Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden to national cancer registries for the period 1961–2005. We report standardized incidence ratios (SIR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of selected cancers for each country by sex, age, and calendar period. The cohort included 38,523 male and 1,998 female police officers. As compared to the general population, male police officers had a 7% (95% CI: 4–9%) excess cancer risk, with elevated SIRs for various cancer sites, including prostate (SIR 1.19, 1.14–1.25), breast (SIR 1.77, 1.05–2.80), colon (SIR 1.22, 1.12–1.32) and skin melanoma (SIR 1.44, 1.28–1.60). Conversely, male police officers had a lower risk of lung cancer than the general population (SIR 0.72, 0.66–0.77). In female police officers, the SIR for cancer overall was 1.15 (0.98–1.34), and there was a slight excess of cancers of the breast (SIR 1.25, 0.97–1.59) and colon (SIR 1.21, 0.55–2.30). In conclusion, cancer incidence among the police officers was slightly higher than in the general population. Notably, SIRs were elevated for cancer sites potentially related to night shift work, namely colon, breast, and prostate cancer.