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Introduction: Professional visual artists constitute a heterogeneous vocational group, including, but not limited to painters, photographers, textile artists, and sculptors who may face exposure to workplace hazardous substances and lifestyle factors that may contribute to the development of selected cancers. The objective of this registry-based cohort study was to assess the cancer incidence among Nordic visual artists. Materials and methods: This study is based on data from the Nordic Occupational Cancer (NOCCA) project that combines census data of 15 million people from all Nordic countries and cancer registries from 1961 to 2005. For the present study we selected a cohort of visual artists from Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Standardized incidence ratio (SIR) analyses were conducted with the cancer incidence rates for the entire national study populations used as reference rates. Results: In male visual artists, there were statistically significant excesses in cancers of the tongue (SIR 2.91, 95% confidence interval 1.74-4.55), oral cavity (2.09, 1.26-3.27), pharynx (2.18, 1.45--3.15), testis (1.91, 1.11-3.05), renal pelvis (2.48, 1.42-4.03) and bladder (1.33, 1.14-1.55). The risk was significantly decreased for cancers of the lip (0.45, 0.18-0.93) and stomach (0.65, 0.50-0.84). In female visual artists, the only significantly increased risk was observed for breast cancer (1.29, 1.13-1.48) and the only significantly decreased risk for stomach cancer (0.43, 0.17-0.88). The incidence of lung cancer was close to the population average in both sexes. Conclusions: The non-elevated incidence of lung cancer suggests a similar prevalence of smoking between visual artists and the general population, while the elevated risk of cancers of mouth and pharynx among male visual artists is suggestive of more widespread alcohol drinking. The excess risk of urogenital cancers might be associated with exposure to solvents. NOVELTY & IMPACT The exposure of visual artists to carcinogens remains unstudied and equivocal. The current study suggests that visual artists carry an overall cancer risk that is slightly above the risk among the general population of the four Nordic countries. We observed in men over two-fold excess risks of cancers of the tongue, oral cavity, pharynx, and renal pelvis, and also a significant risk of testis and bladder cancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disclaimer: Where authors are identified as personnel of the International Agency for Research on Cancer/World Health Organization, the authors alone are responsible for the views expressed in this article and they do not necessarily represent the decisions, policy, or views of the International Agency for Research on Cancer/World Health Organization. Simple Summary: Veterinarians can be exposed to a wide range of known and suspected carcinogens through their work, however relatively few studies have investigated the cancer risk in the profession. We investigated cancer incidence in veterinarians in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, across more than 40 years. In all the countries, the overall cancer incidence in veterinarians was close to the incidence in the total population. There was an elevated incidence of several cancer types among male veterinarians before the 1990s but no excess cancer risk after that. Veterinary work environments have been changing, and are changing, in terms of exposure to chemical compounds, ionizing radiation from diagnostic imaging, and different pathogens, and these changes may affect the cancer profile of veterinarians. The cancer profile of veterinarians has received little research attention, despite the profession potentially being exposed to a wide range of known and suspected carcinogens. In this large-scale cohort study, we assessed cancer incidence in veterinarians in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, across more than 40 years (1961–2005). The cohort comprised 4708 veterinarians and 119,503 person-years at follow-up. The overall cancer incidence in veterinarians was close to the incidence in the total population in all countries and in all age groups. In male veterinarians, the standardized incidence ratios (SIR) in 1961–1990 were elevated for colon cancer (1.86, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.39–2.44), prostate cancer (1.35, 95% CI 1.07–1.67), and especially skin melanoma (3.62, 95% CI 2.78–2.84), while there was no longer any statistically significant excess in the more recent follow-up period. Decreased SIRs were observed for lip cancer (0.11, 95% CI 0.00–0.62), laryngeal cancer (0.38, 95% CI 0.12–0.89), lung cancer (0.59, 95% CI 0.47–0.74), and stomach cancer (0.58, 95% CI 0.38–0.86), without a marked change in SIR over time. Non-significant excesses among male veterinarians were also observed in Hodgkin lymphoma (1961–1990 only), and leukaemia. This multi-country study indicates that there was an elevated incidence of several cancer types among male veterinarians before the 1990s but not after that. Some of the findings might rather be attributed to lifestyle factors and not directly to work conditions, but the excess risk of cancers of kidney and bladder, for example, might be related to work exposures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 to 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 1998 female police officers. As compared with 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]