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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]

Background: The aim of this study was to estimate occupational risk variation in the incidence of nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) in a large population-based cohort of the Nordic Occupational Cancer (NOCCA) study.Methods: This study is based on a cohort of almost 15 million persons from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, with 2898 nasopharyngeal cancer cases diagnosed in 1961-2005. The data on occupations were gathered from population censuses and cancer data from the national cancer registries. Standardized incidence ratios (SIR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated using the national NPC incidence rates as the reference.Results: There were 1980 male and 918 female NPC patients. The highest SIRs of NPC were observed among male waiters (SIR 3.69, 95% CI 1.91-6.45) and cooks and stewards (SIR 2.24, 95% CI 1.16-3.91). Among women, launderers had the highest SIR of NPC (2.04, 95% CI 1.02-3.65). Significantly decreased SIRs were found among male farmers (SIR 0.79, 95% CI 0.68-0.92) and male textile workers (SIR 0.49, 95% CI 0.22-0.93).Conclusions: This study suggests that NPC may be associated with several work-related exposure agents such as smoking, kitchen air pollution and solvents. In future, occupational exposure-risk relations should be studied to understand more about causality and to assess effective prevention strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aim: The Nordic countries provide a suitable setting for comparing trends in suicide mortality. The aim of this report is to compare suicide trends by age, gender, region and methods in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden 1980-2009. Methods: Suicide statistics 1980-2009 were analyzed for men and women aged 15 years and above and the age group 15-24 years. Regional suicide rates in 2009 were presented in maps. Results: The suicide rates across the Nordic countries declined from 25-50 per 100,000 in 1980 to 20-36 in 2009 for men and from 9-26 in 1980 to 8-11 in 2009 for women. The rates in Finland were consistently higher than those of the other countries. A significant increase of suicides in young women in Finland and Norway and a lack of a decline among young women in Sweden were noted. The male- female ratio of suicide converged to approximately 3:1 across the region during the study period. Rural areas in Finland, Norway and Sweden saw the highest suicide rates, whereas the rates in the capital regions of Denmark, Norway and Sweden were lower than the respective national rates. Conclusions: We hold that the overall decline of suicide rates in the Nordic countries reflects the socio-economic development and stability of the region, including the well-functioning healthcare. The increasing rates in Finland and Norway and the unchanged rate in Sweden of suicide in young women are an alarming trend break that calls for continued monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]