Occupational Mortality Matrix: A Tool for Epidemiological Assessment of Work-Related Risk Based on Current Data Sources

Mortality from occupational diseases significantly afflicts society, in terms of both economic costs and human suffering. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated that 2.4 million workers die from work-related diseases every year. In Europe, around 80,000 workers die from cancer attributed to occupational exposure to carcinogens. This study developed the Occupational Mortality Matrix (OMM) aimed to identify significant associations between causes of death and occupational sectors through an individual record linkage between mortality data and the administrative archive of occupational histories. The study population consisted of 6,433,492 deceased subjects in Italy (in the period 2005–2015), of which 2,723,152 records of work histories were retrieved (42%). The proportional mortality ratio (PMR) was estimated to investigate the excess of mortality for specific causes associated with occupational sectors. Higher PMRs were reported for traditionally risky occupations such as shipbuilding for mesothelioma cases (PMR: 8.15; 95% CI: 7.28–9.13) and leather production for sino-nasal cancer (PMR: 5.04; 95% CI: 3.54–7.19), as well as for unexpected risks such as male breast cancer in the pharmaceutical industry (PMR: 2.56; 95% CI: 1.33–4.93) and brain cancer in railways (PMR: 1.43; 95% CI: 1.24–1.66). The OMM proved to be a valid tool for research studies to generate hypotheses about the occupational etiology of diseases, and to monitor and support priority actions for risk reduction in workplaces.