Occupations with the highest death rates from suicide are doctors, dentists, nurses, veterinarians and other health-related jobs, according to a new report published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

The report is part of a series published for 10-year periods and covers the 1991-2000.

The research was carried out by a team at the University of Southampton MRC Epidemiology Resource Centre under Professor David Coggon and focuses on those combinations of occupation and cause of death which might be associated with known and postulated potential occupational hazards.

Other results included:

• hairdressers, tailors and dressmakers had particularly high proportional mortality rates from HIV/AIDS/immunodeficiency. Among women, increased mortality from HIV/AIDS/immunodeficiency was again seen in literary and artistic occupations, along with nurses
• high proportional mortality was evident from almost all the causes of death associated with alcohol in both male and female publicans and bar staff, male caterers, cooks, kitchen porters and sea farers
• aircraft flight deck officers had high mortality from skin melanoma

The full report can be accessed at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=1624

At the time of going to press, the ONS had not responded to Recruiter’s request to know why the data takes so long to be published.