Dalla Lana School of Public Health

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Title: Occupational asbestos exposure and gastrointestinal cancers

This presentation will summarize the results of a systematic review of epidemiological studies on occupational asbestos exposure and gastrointestinal cancers. The review found evidence of an elevated risk of esophageal cancer, stomach cancer and colorectal cancer with occupational exposure to asbestos. There was consistency and higher meta-risk estimates in the analyses of studies where there was better exposure assessment and increased confidence in the categorization of high asbestos exposure. This systematic review is of direct relevance to health and safety professionals, and to workers’ compensation systems for policy development and adjudication of claims for workers.

Learning objectives:

At the end of this seminar attendees will be able to:

Understand the current body of evidence of the relationship between occupational asbestos exposure and the risk of gastrointestinal (GI) cancers;
Understand the systematic review methods used to summarize the evidence on asbestos and GI cancers, and the robustness of the evidence to biases, variability, and sensitivity analyses; and
Understand the importance of the systematic review for health and safety, workers’ compensation and workers.

Presenters: Dr. Mieke Koehoorn and Dr. Chris McLeod

Dr. Mieke Koehoorn is a Professor and Associate Director of Research with the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Chris McLeod is an Associate Professor and Head of the Occupational and Environmental Health Division at UBC’s School of Population and Public Health.

Together, Mieke and Chris co-lead the Partnership for Work, Health and Safety – an innovative partnership between the university and the workers’ compensation system to generate policy-relevant evidence in response to knowledge gaps in the area of work and health.