BACKGROUND: Cancer and chronic disease are leading causes of death in the US with an estimated cost of $46 billion. METHODS: We analyzed 11 million cause-specific deaths of US workers age 18-64 years in 30 states during 1985-1999, 2003-2004, and 2007 by occupation, industry, race, gender, and Hispanic origin. RESULTS: The highest significantly elevated proportionate leukemia mortality was observed in engineers, protective service, and advertising sales manager occupations and in banks/savings & loans/credit agencies, public safety, and public administration industries. The highest significantly elevated smoking-adjusted acute myocardial infarction mortality was noted in industrial and refractory machinery mechanics, farmers, mining machine operators, and agricultural worker occupations; and wholesale farm supplies, agricultural chemical, synthetic rubber, and agricultural crop industries. CONCLUSIONS: Significantly elevated risks for acute myocardial infarction and leukemia were observed across several occupations and industries that confirm existing reports and add new information. Interested investigators can access the NOMS website at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/NOMS/.

BACKGROUND: The occurrence of Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) is shaped by environmental influences. Many such environmental risk factors vary potentially with occupational exposure. We used a large national database to study the occupational variation of mortality associated with CD and UC. METHODS: The National Occupational Mortality Surveillance database contains data from the death certificate linked with information about the occupation and industry of each deceased individual. Deaths were grouped by gender, ethnicity, disease type, occupation, and industry. Mortality by occupation and industry were expressed as age-adjusted proportional mortality ratio. RESULTS: A total of 3110 inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients were included in the present analysis. IBD mortality was low among blue collar workers and high among white collar workers. It was low among farming occupations, manufacturing occupations, and manual laborers. It was high among secretaries, professionals, sales workers, homemakers, managerial occupations, and teachers. There was a strong correlation between the occupational distribution of CD and UC that applied to men and women alike. The overall distribution among different industries corroborated the patterns observed with respect to the occupational distribution. CONCLUSIONS: The correlations between the occupational distribution of CD and UC support the contention that environmental influences shape the occurrence of both diseases. Such influence must vary by occupation and, to a lesser extent, also by industry. It must be similar for both types of IBD. (Inflamm Bowel Dis 2011;).

BACKGROUND: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in US women, accounting for 72,130 deaths in 2006. In addition to smoking cessation, further reduction of the burden of lung cancer mortality can be made by preventing exposure to occupational lung carcinogens. Data for occupational exposures and health outcomes of US working women are limited. METHODS: Population-based mortality data for 4,570,711 women who died between 1984 and 1998 in 27 US States were used to evaluate lung cancer proportionate mortality over time by the usual occupation and industry reported on death certificates. Lung cancer proportionate mortality ratios were adjusted for smoking, using data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and the American Cancer Society's Cancer Prevention Study II. RESULTS: Analyses revealed that 194,382 white, 18,225 Black and 1,515 Hispanic women died 1984-1998 with lung cancer reported as the underlying cause of death. Following adjustment for smoking, significant excess proportionate lung cancer mortality was observed among US women working in the US manufacturing; transportation; retail trade; agriculture, forestry, and fishing; and nursing/personal care industries. Women employed in precision production, technical, managerial, professional specialty, and administrative occupations experienced some of the highest significantly excess proportionate lung cancer mortality during 1984-1998. CONCLUSIONS: The results of our study point to significantly elevated risks for lung cancer after adjustment for smoking among women in several occupations and industries. Because 6-17% of lung cancer in US males is attributable to known exposures to occupational carcinogens, and since synergistic interactions between cigarette smoke and other occupational lung carcinogens have been noted, it is important to continue research into the effects of occupational exposures on working men and women. Am. J. Ind. Med. (c) 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.