The burden of occupational cancer in Great Britain. Breast cancer

The aim of this project was to produce an updated estimate of the current burden of cancer for Great Britain resulting from occupational exposure to carcinogenic agents or exposure circumstances. The primary measure of the burden of cancer was the attributable fraction (AF) being the proportion of cases that would not have occurred in the absence of exposure; and the AF was used to estimate the number of attributable deaths and registrations. The study involved obtaining data on the risk of the cancer due to the exposure of interest, taking into account confounding factors and overlapping exposures, as well as the proportion of the target population exposed over the relevant exposure period. Only carcinogenic agents, or exposure circumstances, classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as definite (Group 1) or probable (Group 2A) human carcinogens were considered. Here, we present estimates for cancer of the breast that have been derived using incidence data for calendar year 2004, and mortality data for calendar year 2005. Due to the dominance of female breast cancer and the limited data concerning male breast cancer, this report focuses on breast cancer in women.

The estimated total attributable fraction (female only) for cancer of the breast attributable to occupation overall and associated with shift work (including flight personnel) is 4.56% (95%Confidence Interval (CI)=3.26-5.97), which equates to 555 (95%CI= 397-727) attributable deaths and 1,969 (95%CI=1,407-2,579) attributable registrations.