WORK RELATED MORTALITY FROM GASTROINTESTINAL DISEASES AND ALCOHOL AMONG SEAFARERS EMPLOYED IN BRITISH MERCHANT SHIPPING FROM 1939 TO 2002

Objectives: To investigate work related mortality from gastrointestinal diseases and from alcohol among seafarers who were employed in British merchant shipping from 1939 to 2002. Methods: A longitudinal study, based on official mortality files from 1976-2002 and official mortality returns from 1939-1975, with a population of 7.29 million seafarer-years at risk. Results: From 1939 to 2002, there were 864 deaths from gastrointestinal diseases and 72 from alcoholism. Overall mortality from gastrointestinal diseases fell from 18.4 per 100,000 in 1939-49 to 9.3 in 1970-79 and 0.3 in 1990-2002. Mortality from alcoholism, and from alcohol-related diseases such as liver cirrhosis and diseases of the pancreas, increased up to the 1960s or 1970s, but fell thereafter. From 1950 to 1972, mortality from gastrointestinal diseases was 1.8 times higher among Asian seafarers compared to British seafarers, largely because of liver disease, peritonitis and pepti