Despite the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in 2007 ranking “occupational exposure as a painter as carcinogenic to humans”, three years later the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (IIAC) refused to recognise the cancer risk in painters as a prescribed industrial disease qualifying for state compensation payouts. An IIAC information note concluded: “After reviewing the limited evidence available on this subject, the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (IIAC) decided not to make any recommendations for changes to the list of prescribed diseases for which people can claim Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB).” IIAC’s decision came after an independent report it commissioned from the University of Birmingham concluded: “It is not possible to identify a group, either by type of painting or by duration of painting that suffers a doubling of risk.” Critics consider the doubling of risk criteria used by IIAC to be arbitrary, and serving only to reduce the government’s compensation liabilities for work-related diseases.

Cancer risk in painters, IIAC information note, 4 November 2010. Occupational cancer risks in commercial painters: a review prepared for the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (IIAC), Independent report for IIAC, 1 November 2010.