LONDON, Dec. 2 (UPI) — Working some type of seafaring job is the occupation carrying the greatest risk for developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, researchers found in a study of health records.
After boat-based careers, the top three careers carrying risk for the lung disease were coal mine operatives and industrial cleaniners. Most of the list, which was presented at the winter meeting of the British Thoracic Society, included positions involved with heavy industry or manufacturing, combined with time spent outdoors.
The researchers said exposure to occupational hazards is both avoidable and involuntary, but that many people are exposed to harmful chemicals and particulates in the air as part of their jobs. Understanding the risks, they said, may help better prepare people in these jobs to protect their health.
“Some of them were already known, such as coal miners, but others are new findings such as seafarers or cleaners,” said Dr. Sara De Matteis, a professor at Imperial College London who led the study, said in a press release. “The main strength of this study is the unprecedented scale that allowed us to explore not only a broad range of occupations in the general population, but also to confirm the validity of our results among those in our sample who never smoked which meant that we were able to rule out any confounding effect from tobacco smoking.”
Researchers analyzed data from the UK Biobank study for 228,614 people working in 353 occupations, ranking them by prevalence ratio, or PR. A PR greater than 1 means a person in a particular job has a risk for COPD higher than a person of the same age, gender, and lifetime exposure to tobacco smoking.
Only two of the top nine occupations had a PR for COPD greater than 2. Seafarers and boat operatives carry a PR of 2.64 and coal mine operatives have a PR of 2.30. The remaining seven had PRs ranging between 1.96 and 1.35: Industrial cleaning process occupations; roofers, tilers, and slaters; packers, bottlers, canners, and fillers; food, drink and tobacco process operatives; domestic cleaners; floorers and wall tilers; and postal workers and couriers.
For those in seafaring jobs, as well as many manufacturing and transportation positions, exposure to diesel fumes was hypothesized as increasing the risk for COPD, with similar comparisons made for fumes and chemicals in other positions.
Researchers said future studies should focus on finding the actual causes for increased risk, as well as ways to decrease the risk for employees — which at least one researcher said employers should start doing immediately.
“Workplaces have a key role in monitoring and promoting better lung health,” said Dr. Lisa Davies, chairperson of the British Thoracic Society’s Executive Committee. “This may include offering lung function testing, minimising exposure to harmful chemicals and promoting stop smoking services. The occupations highlighted in this report must take the issue on board quickly and strengthen their procedures as appropriate.”
Comment count on this article reflects comments made on Breitbart.com and Facebook. Visit Breitbart's Facebook Page.