Mortality in commercial fishermen of Atlantic Canada

All commercial fishermen in the Canadian Maritime provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island) are registered with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). The data obtained by DFO during 1975-1983 on 33,000 fishermen were linked with the Canadian Mortality Data Base by the record linkage procedures in place at Statistics Canada, thus identifying 1,289 male deaths. When Canadian mortality rates were used to calculate the expected number of deaths, the standardized mortality ratio (SMR) was 0.80 for all causes. The rather low SMR can be explained at least partially by "the healthy worker effect". Although the healthy worker effect is generally greater for the younger age groups (i.e. a lower SMR), in this study the all-causes SMR for those under 44 years of age was 1.5. All accidents together showed an SMR of 1.5 which was even higher for the younger age groups (1.75). The most striking finding was the ratio for water transport accidents where observed deaths occurred at 8.5 times the expected rate. SMR for cancers were somewhat high, especially cancer of the pancreas at 1.5. Notable also were the very low rates for respiratory diseases although the younger fishermen still had an SMR greater than one. From a public health point of view, the high accident mortality for all fishermen and high mortality for many causes at the most productive ages associated with this occupation is of concern.