Occupational sunlight exposure in relation to suicide among electric utility workers

Background Occupational sunlight exposure was examined in I-elation to deat h front suicide in a United States cohort of 138,905 male electric utility workers. Methods Case-control sampling included 536 deaths from suicide and 5,348 el igible controls randomly selected from the cohort, Exposure was classified based on work history?, linked to indices of cumulative sunlight exposure. Results Mortality from suicide was not associated with estimates of recent and career occupational sunlight exposure, with adjusted odds ratios around unity. Occupational sunlight exposure was positively associated with nonvi olent suicides, but no dose-response gradient was observed and risk estimat es were notably imprecise. Conclusions These data provide evidence against art association between occ upational sunlight exposure and mortality from suicide. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss , Inc.