About cancer among Norwegian offshore workers in Norway

It is known that some of the chemical compounds in crude oil and gas can be carcinogenic. The Cancer Registry of Norway has several ongoing research projects that study the incidence and risk of cancer among offshore workers.

In 1989, the CRN received a request from the Norwegian Oil Industry Association (today Norwegian Oil and Gas). The Norwegian oil industry had grown significantly during the 1970s and 80s and the Norwegian Oil Industry Association was interested in an overview of cancer incidence and mortality among offshore workers. Following the request, CRN conducted a large survey in 1998 among 28,000 people who worked offshore between 1965 and 1998. Data from the survey resulted in the "Offshore-cohort", which has been the basis for several publications.

During the last decades, working environment and potential health hazards in the oil industry have received more attention. The Government has stated in reports to the Norwegian Parliament, that they want Norway to be a world leader in health safety and environment (HSE) standards in petroleum activities. As the industry is constantly developing, and with greater attention to HSE, there has been a need for exposure-related cancer studies from recent years, including data after 1998. Thus, with broad support from the industry, unions and regulators, the CRN started in 2019 to plan a new project. In this project, the plan is to use data from helicopter transport to offshore platforms, to identify individuals who have been offshore in the period from the 1980s until today. This cohort is called the "Heliport-cohort". The Heliport cohort will be a unique database that will provide an updated and almost complete overview of the employee group at offshore installations – and hence a high-quality monitoring tool for studies of benzene exposure and cancer risk from, and potentially other exposures and health outcomes, depending on formal authorization from regulatory agencies.

Click here for bigger picture and links.

Findings

  • Long-term rotating shift work can increase the risk of aggressive prostate cancer. Read more.
  • Increased risk for some cancer types among offshore workers compared to the remaining Norwegian population. Read more.
  • The risk of some types of lymphoma and leukaemia (acute myeloid leukaemia, multiple myeloma and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia) appears to increase as benzene exposure increases.
  • The risk of skin cancer appears to increase with duration of skin contact with benzene and crude oil. Read more here and here.

Employees in the offshore group

Get to know the offshore research group working on projects that deal with cancer risk among offshore workers. Click on the name to get a detailed profile.

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From the left: Leon Alexander Mclaren Berge, Mari Messel, Niki Marjerrison, Tom K Grimsrud, Marit Bragelien Veierød, Ronnie Babigumira, Mieke Louwe, Jo S Stenehjem, Nita Kaupan Shala, and Behzad Heibati.

Group leader

Jo S Stenehjem
Senior Research Scientist

Group participants

Tom K Grimsrud
Senior Medical Officer/Senior Research Scientist

Marit Bragelien Veierød
Professor, University of Oslo

Leon Alexander Mclaren Berge
Researcher, University of Oslo

Niki Marjerrison
Researcher, University of Oslo

Nita Kaupang Shala
Postdoctoral Researcher

Ronnie Babigumira
PhD Research Fellow

Jan Ivar Martinsen
Data Manager

Mieke Louwe
Senior advisor/Project coordinator

Allumni

Fei Chih (Phillip) Liu
PhD-student 2019–2022
Disputation 23-Sept-2022

Behzad Heibati
Postdoc 2023-2024

Academic collaborators

Norwegian partners

Sven Ove Samuelsen, Professor, University of Oslo

Leiv Arne Rosseland, Professor, Oslo University Hospital/University of Oslo

Olav Røise, Professor Oslo University Hospital/University of Oslo

Magne Bråtveit, Professor, University of Bergen

Tom Ivar Nilsen, Professor Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Karl-Christian Nordby, Deputy Director of Occupational Medicine and Epidemiology, STAMI

Raymond Olsen, Senior Research Fellow, STAMI

Jorunn Kirkeleit, Senior Research Fellow, STAMI

International partners

Dean Hosgood, Associate Professor, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, USA

Debra Silverman, Director of the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch and Senior Investigator, National Cancer Institute, USA

Nathaniel Rotman, Senior Investigator, National Cancer Institute, USA

Qing Lan, Senior Investigator, National Cancer Institute, USA

Melissa Friessen, Senior Investigator, National Cancer Institute, USA

Roel Vermeulen, Professor, Utrecht University, Netherlands 

Johannes (Hans) Kromhout, Professor, Utrecht University, Netherlands 

Paul Demers, Professor, Occupational Cancer Research Centre, Ontario, Canada 

Lawrence Engel, Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA

Financial research support

Projects funded through the Research Council of Norway are "Exposure and cancer risk among offshore workers", "Cancer risk associated with benzene exposure", and "Exposure assessment and prevention of death, disease and injuries among offshoreworkers".

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The Norwegian Cancer Society finances the project "chemical exposure, night shift work and cancer risk among Norwegian offshore workers".

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Research dissemination

In the media

2024

2023

2022

2021

Peer-reviewd articles

Nita K Shala, Marit B Veierød, Ronnie Babigumira, Leon A M Berge, Sven O Samuelsen, Jorunn Kirkeleit, Magne Bråtveit, Melissa C Friesen, Alexander P Keil, Debra T Silverman, Nathaniel Rothman, Lan Qing, Jo S Stenehjem, Tom K Grimsrud. Occupational exposures and kidney cancer among 25 000 male offshore petroleum industry workers: relative risks and healthy worker survivor bias. Am J Epidemiol. 2025 Feb 28. PMID: 40036895. Online ahead of print.

Leon Alexander Mclaren Berge, Nita Kaupang Shala, Francesco Barone-Adesi, H Dean Hosgood, Sven Ove Samuelsen, Magne Bråtveit, Jorunn Kirkeleit, Debra Silverman, Melissa C Friesen, Ronnie Babigumira, Tom K Grimsrud, Marit B Veierød, Jo S Stenehjem. Exposure to fibres and risk of pleural mesothelioma in the Norwegian Offshore Petroleum Workers cohort. Occup Environ Med. 2024 Aug 16. PMID: 38955483

Ronnie Babigumira, Marit B Veierød, H Dean Hosgood, Sven Ove Samuelsen, Magne Bråtveit, Jorunn Kirkeleit, Nathaniel Rothman, Qing Lan, Debra T Silverman, Melissa C Friesen, Nita Kaupang Shala, Tom K Grimsrud, Jo Steinson Stenehjem. Benzene exposure and risk of lung cancer in the Norwegian Offshore Petroleum Worker cohort: a prospective case-cohort study. Occup Environ Med. 2023 Dec 28. PMID: 38154914

Nita K Shala, Jo S Stenehjem, Ronnie Babigumira, Fei-Chih Liu, Leon A M Berge, Debra T Silverman, Melissa C Friesen, Nathaniel Rothman, Qing Lan, H Dean Hosgood, Sven O Samuelsen, Magne Bråtveit, Jorunn Kirkeleit, Bettina K Andreassen, Marit B Veierød, Tom K Grimsrud. Exposure to benzene and other hydrocarbons and risk of bladder cancer among male offshore petroleum workers. Br J Cancer. 2023 Jul 18. PMID: 37464024

Leon A M Berge, Fei-Chih Liu, Tom K Grimsrud, Ronnie Babigumira, Nathalie C Støer, Kristina Kjærheim, Trude E Robsahm, Reza Ghiasvand, H Dean Hosgood, Sven Ove Samuelsen, Debra T Silverman, Melissa C Friesen, Nita K Shala, Marit B Veierød, Jo S Stenehjem. Night shift work and risk of aggressive prostate cancer in the Norwegian Offshore Petroleum Workers (NOPW) cohort. Int J Epidemiol. 2023 Aug 2;52(4):1003-1014. PMID: 36548214

Fei-Chih Liu, Tom K Grimsrud, Marit B Veierød, Trude E Robsahm, Reza Ghiasvand, Ronnie Babigumira, Nita K Shala, Jo S Stenehjem. Ultraviolet radiation and risk of cutaneous melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma in males and females in the Norwegian Offshore Petroleum Workers cohort. Am J Ind Med. 2021 Jun;64(6):496-510. PMID: 33682179

Fei-Chih Liu, Marit B Veierød, Kristina Kjærheim, Trude E Robsahm, Reza Ghiasvand, Ronnie Babigumira, Nita K Shala, Leon A M Berge, Giske Ursin, Tom K Grimsrud, Jo S Stenehjem. Excess risk of male breast cancer in the Norwegian Offshore Petroleum Workers (NOPW) cohort: a possible link to extreme night shift work? Breast Cancer Res. 2021 Nov 18;23(1):106. PMID: 34794511

Fei Chih Liu, Marit Bragelien Veierød, Kristina Kjærheim, Trude Eid Robsahm, Reza Ghiasvand, H Dean Hosgood, Sven Ove Samuelsen, Magne Bråtveit, Jorunn Kirkeleit, Nathaniel Rothman, Qing Lan, Debra T Silverman, Melissa C Friesen, Ronnie Babigumira, Nita Shala, Tom K Grimsrud, Jo Steinson Stenehjem. Night shift work, chemical coexposures and risk of female breast cancer in the Norwegian Offshore Petroleum Workers (NOPW) cohort: a prospectively recruited case-cohort study. BMJ Open. 2022 Jan 24;12(1):e056396. PMID: 35074823

Jo S Stenehjem, Ronnie Babigumira, H Dean Hosgood, Marit B Veierød, Sven Ove Samuelsen, Magne Bråtveit, Jorunn Kirkeleit, Nathaniel Rothman, Qing Lan, Debra T Silverman, Melissa C Friesen, Trude E Robsahm, Kristina Kjærheim, Bettina K Andreassen, Nita K Shala, Fei-Chih Liu, Leif-Åge Strand, Tom K Grimsrud. Cohort Profile: Norwegian Offshore Petroleum Workers (NOPW) Cohort. Int J Epidemiol., 2021 May 17;50(2):398-399. PMID: 32879941

Jo Steinson Stenehjem, Ronnie Babigumira, Melissa C Friesen, Tom Kristian Grimsrud. Harmonizing work history data in epidemiologic studies with overlapping employment records. Am J Ind Med. 2019 May;62(5):422-429. PMID: 30919995

J S Stenehjem, T E Robsahm, M Bråtveit, S O Samuelsen, J Kirkeleit, T K Grimsrud. Ultraviolet radiation and skin cancer risk in offshore workers. Occup Med (Lond). 2017 Oct 1;67(7):569-573. PMID: 2904859

Jo Steinson Stenehjem, Trude Eid Robsahm, Magne Bråtveit, Sven Ove Samuelsen, Jorunn Kirkeleit, Tom Kristian Grimsrud. Aromatic hydrocarbons and risk of skin cancer by anatomical site in 25 000 male offshore petroleum workers. Am J Ind Med. 2017 Aug;60(8):679-688. PMID: 28692192

Jo S Stenehjem, Melissa C Friesen, Tone Eggen, Kristina Kjærheim, Magne Bråtveit, Tom K Grimsrud. Self-reported Occupational Exposures Relevant for Cancer among 28,000 Offshore Oil Industry Workers Employed between 1965 and 1999. J Occup Environ Hyg. 2015;12(7):458-68. PMID: 5671393

J S Stenehjem, K Kjærheim, M Bråtveit, S O Samuelsen, F Barone-Adesi, N Rothman, Q Lan, T K Grimsrud. Benzene exposure and risk of lymphohaematopoietic cancers in 25 000 offshore oil industry workers. Br J Cancer. 2015 Apr 28;112(9):1603-12. PMID: 25867262

J S Stenehjem, K. Kjærheim, K. S. Rabanal, T. K. Grimsrud. Cancer incidence among 41 000 offshore oil industry workers. Occupational Medicine, 2014 Oct; 64(7):539–545, https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqu111

Gjøril Bergva Aas, Bjarte Aagnes, Leif Age Strand, Tom K Grimsrud. Suggested excess of occupational cancers in Norwegian offshore workers: preliminary results from the Cancer Registry Offshore Cohort. Scand J Work Environ Health, 2009 Oct;35(5):397. PMID: 19554245

Other reports and publications

Shala NK (2024). Occupational exposures and cancer of the bladder, kidney, and pleura in Norwegian offshore petroleum workers. PhD thesis. Kreftregisteret, Universitetet i Oslo

Liu FC (2022). Ultraviolet exposure and night shift work in relation to risk of
skin, breast and prostate cancer in offshore petroleum workers. PhD thesis. Kreftregisteret, Universitetet i Oslo

Stenehjem & Grimsrud (2015). Benzeneksponering og risiko for lymfohematologisk kreft. Best Practice Juni 2015.

Stenehjem J (2014). Cancer incidence and occupational exposure in offshore oil industry workers. PhD thesis. Kreftregisteret, Universitetet i Oslo.

Stenehjem and Grimsrud (2012). Prosjekt kjemisk arbeidsmiljø i olje- og gassindustrien. Yrkeshygienikeren

Aas. GB, Strand LÅ & Grimsrud (2007). Kartlegging av kreftrisiko og årsaksspesifikk dødelighet blant ansatte i norsk offshorevirksomhet - Utdanning og yrkesaktivitet utenfor offshore. Oslo: Kreftregisteret

Aas GB, Strand LÅ & Grimsrud TK (2007). Kartlegging av kreftrisiko og årsaksspesifikk dødelighet blant ansatte i norsk offshorevirksomhet - Foreløpig vurdering av kreftforekomst ogskisse for fremtidige studier. Oslo: Kreftregisteret.

Strand LÅ, Andersen A (2001). Kartlegging av kreftrisiko og årsaksspesifikk dødelighet blant ansatte i norsk offshorevirksomhet. Forskningsrapport nr. 1 – 2001. Oslo: Kreftregisteret.

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