Exploring a new model for occupational cancer surveillance

There are about 60 well-established workplace carcinogens, and still more to-be-identified occupational carcinogens. Yet Canada still lacks a rapid, systematic means to assess increased cancer risk associated with occupational exposures. Although Canada collects timely and high quality information on every new cancer that is diagnosed through provincial and national registries, occupational cancer surveillance data has been limited by the lack of information on industry and occupation. In a pilot study, a research team linked Workplace Insurance and Safety Board (WSIB) lost-time claims data with the Ontario Cancer Registry (OCR). In this plenary, Dr. Paul Demers, director of the Occupational Cancer Research Centre, discusses the results of the pilot study, focusing on the feasibility of this new approach to assessing and monitoring workplace risk factors for cancer.