Figures from the French national statistics office DARES published in 2005 revealed more than 1 in 8 workers was exposed to workplace substances that can cause cancer. The analysis of the 2003 SUMER survey indicated that 13.5 per cent of the total French workforce was exposed to one or more of a list of 28 workplace carcinogens. The figure was higher than estimates a decade earlier. Blue collar workers were eight times as likely to be at risk, with 25 per cent exposed. Eight products, all common in UK workplaces, contributed more than two-thirds of all exposures – mineral oils, three organic solvents, asbestos, wood dust, diesel exhaust fumes and crystalline silica.

Les expositions aux produits cancerogenes, Premiere Syntheses Informations, DARES, Number 28.1, 2005.