Features • Resources • News

Losing the workplace cancer fight, BBC File on Four,
File on Four reports on a newly published paper that shows UK authorities are failing to acknowledge or deal effectively with an epidemic of work-related cancers.
University of Stirling news release, 9 October 2007

Occupational cancer features

Discounting cancers New reports have confirmed HSE’s estimates of occupational cancer risks fall way short. Hazards says the watchdog should get its act together before another working generation pay with their lives.
Hazards report, issue 99, July - September 2007

Burying the evidence - How the UK is prolonging the occu-pational cancer epidemic
The UK authorities are failing to acknowledge or deal effectively with an epidemic of work-related cancers. The government’s Health and Safety Executive is underestimating the exposed population, the risks faced as a result of those exposures and the potential for prevention. Hazards report, 25 June 2007 • Cancer Prevention Coalition news release

Global: Hidden cancer epidemic kills hundreds of thousands each year A worldwide epidemic of occupational cancer is claiming at least one life every 52 seconds, but this tragedy is being ignored by both official regulators and employers. A new cancer prevention guide, reveals that over 600,000 deaths a year – one death every 52 seconds – are caused by occupational cancer, making up almost one-third of all work-related deaths.
IMF News Release, 23 March 2007 • BWI news release • A union guide to cancer prevention (pdf) • Hazards Cancer Prevention Kit •

Scientist played down work cancer risks A world-famous British scientist failed to disclose that he held a paid consultancy with a chemical company for more than 20 years while investigating cancer risks in the industry. Sir Richard Doll, the celebrated epidemiologist, was receiving a consultancy fee of $1,500 a day in the mid-1980s from chemical multinational Monsanto. Hazards magazine, 16 December 2006

Breathtaking Asbestos diseases kill thousands in the UK every year. But these are not just statistics, they are all stories of pain, hardship and bereavement. Hazards 94, May 2006 [pdf] • asbestos webpage

Burying the evidence Britain is facing a cancer epidemic which has been almost entirely missed in official statistics. Hazards reports on an occupational cancer crisis that is killing 50 people every day and calls for an urgent and fully resourced public health response. Hazards 92, November 2005

Who pays when cancer strikes? In 1977 Hazards warned that a Derbyshire PVC factory could have put workers at risk of developing cancer at the end of the century. It took local trade union research this year to confirm the factory's former workforce has been decimated by disease. Hazards 64, November 1998

 

Occupational cancer resources

Cancer/Zero Cancer: A union guide to prevention [pdf]

Hazards occupational cancer prevention kit

IMF occupational cancer webpages

BWI occupational cancer webpages (English)

Occupational cancers section added to HESA website more

Le site web HESA s'enrichit d'un dossier sur les cancers professionnels plus

US National Library of Medicine Haz-Map

IBB: cancer professionnel (français)

BWI fact sheet: Cancer in construction and timber trades [pdf]

Amicus occupational cancer webpage

OHS Reps @ Work cancer resources, Australia

Cancer resource on YouTube Two video clips warn that what you breathe, swallow and touch at work and where you live can seriously affect your chances of developing cancer – and this risk has increased dramatically as a consequence of industrialisation The rise in cancer - Part 1 • The rise in cancer - Part 2

No More Breast Cancer campaign

Labour Environmental Alliance Society (LEAS), Canada

New Jersey Department of Health carcinogens factsheet

Lowell Center for Sustainable Production

Prevent Cancer Coalition work and cancer webpages

Prevent Cancer Now A Canada- wide movement to eliminate the preventable causes of cancer

Chemicals Policy Initiative

Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control

Toxics Use Reduction Institute (TURI)

The Collaborative on Health and the Environment

European Environmental Agency

Women’s Environmental Network

Children’s Environmental Health Network

International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)

International Society of Doctors for the Environment

Cancer Prevention and Education Society

Occupational cancers section added to HESA website The scientific consensus is that on average, 8 per cent of cancer deaths are work-related. For some, like bladder and lung cancer, the figure is even well above 10per cent. It is safe to say that cancer is now the main cause of “death by working conditions” in Europe. This cancer “epidemic” puts trade unions up against a big challenge that is locked into general improvements in working conditions. To help spread information about the risk factors and the tools – especially legislative – that workers can use to eliminate or reduce them, our special pages now give you access to many reference papers on the links between cancer and work, as well as details of union campaigns run against this killer disease. Occupational cancers, HESA webpage Le site web HESA s'enrichit d'un dossier sur les cancers professionnels La communauté scientifique admet qu'en moyenne 8 % des décès par cancer sont liés au travail. Pour certains cancers, comme ceux du poumon et de la vessie, la barre des 10 % est très nettement franchie. Il ne fait plus aucun doute aujourd'hui que le cancer représente la première cause de mortalité due au travail en Europe. Cette "épidémie" de cancers confronte le mouvement syndical à un défi majeur, étroitement lié à l'amélioration générale des conditions de travail. Afin d'encourager la diffusion d'informations sur les facteurs de risque et les outils, notamment législatifs, à la disposition des travailleurs pour les éliminer ou les réduire, un dossier vous donne désormais accès à de nombreux articles de référence sur le lien entre cancer et travail. Vous trouverez également des informations sur les campagnes syndicales menées pour combattre ce fléau. dossier Cancers professionnels Back to Hazards cancer resources