UK construction union Unite has launched an online register to allow workers who have been exposed to dangerous silica dust to record their exposure. The union says this will assist with potential future legal cases if they experience long term health problems, including cancer.

Unite says industries where workers are potentially exposed to respirable crystalline silica include mining, quarrying, foundries, potteries, ceramics, glass manufacturing, stonemasonry, construction and industries using silica flour. Inhaling large amounts of silica dust over a long period can cause silicosis, a frequently fatal lung-scarring disease.

It can also lead to other potentially fatal illnesses including lung and other cancers, silicotuberculosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and kidney and autoimmune diseases.

Unite national health and safety adviser Bud Hudspith said: “Unfortunately many employers remain willing to play fast and loose with the health of their workers. Unite’s primary aim is to ensure employers prevent silicosis and lung cancer through the removal or strict control of silica dust.”

The silica exposure register was developed in Unite’s south east region, where members of the union employed at cable producer Prysmian Cables in Hampshire raised concerns about the long-term welfare of workers. Michael Hobbs, Unite’s senior steward at Prysmian Cables, said: “The silica register is long overdue; the threat of exposure is a millstone round the necks of workers in many different sectors. Educating and warning workers about the dangers of airborne dust will undoubtedly save lives, so credit should be given to everyone behind launching this much needed campaign.”

Unions in the UK have been highly critical of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for defending the existing UK occupational exposure standard of 0.1mg/m³, five times the level proposed by authorities in the Australian state of Victoria and twice the current US limit.

Unite has produced a short film to explain how the register operates and the dangers of inhaling silica dust.

• Resources on dust risks and controls: Guide to occupational hygiene for union health and safety representatives, TUC/British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS), November 2016.
• More on work-related dust diseases and risk assessment checklist.

An official review of Australia’s respirable silica exposure standard is an opportunity to save lives – but the federal proposals are not protective enough and are being unacceptably delayed, the Victorian Trades Hall Council (VTHC) has said.

The union body warned that Safe Work Australia’s decision to take three years to halve the current respirable crystalline silica exposure standard to 0.05mg/m^{3  “}does nothing to stem the tsunami of silicosis currently sweeping Australian workplaces.”

VTHC added: “This is a decision that flies in the face of recommendations from the Cancer Council, occupational health and safety experts in Australian Unions and international scientific research that called for an exposure standard of 0.02mg/m³.”

The state union body has vowed to campaign for the state government to introduce a tighter standard of 0.02 mg/m³, “making the state a world-leader on safety standards in this area.” Exposure to airborne silica is linked to diseases including silicosis, a potentially fatal lung scarring disease, autoimmune diseases and cancer.

In 2011 almost 600,000 Australians were exposed to silica dust whilst working; VTHC said it is estimated that 5,758 of them will develop lung cancer over the course of their life. The Victorian state government is supporting a move to the tighter 0.02 mg/m³ standard.

The move has the backing of unions, lawyers and medical experts in Victoria. Dr Paul Sutton, VTHC’s lead occupational health and safety organiser, commented: “This is a black day for stonemasons and all workers around the country exposed to silica dust. Safe Work Australia’s decision ignores international scientific evidence and Cancer Council recommendations. The three-year implementation is particularly galling because workers are being exposed to deadly, toxic silica dust today.”

He added: “The Victorian Trades Hall Council will not give up the fight for a safe silica standard here in Victoria.”

The VTHC call for a tighter 0.02 mg/m³ standard has been echoed by unions in Western Australia. Unions WA assistant secretary Owen Whittle said: “Unions are emphatic that this new standard must be adopted and that work and safety agencies monitor compliance as well as provision of all necessary safe practices such as wet cutting to reduce airborne silica dust, good ventilation in areas where working, wearing of respiration protective equipment, among other practices.”

Unions in the UK have been highly critical of the Health and Safety Executive for defending the current 0.1mg/m³ occupational exposure limit, five times the level proposed in Victoria and twice the level current in force in the USA.

• Arguments for a more protective silica exposure standard: Part 1: Dust to dust: Deadly silica standard is killing UK workers, Hazards, number 126, 2014. Part 2: A line in the sand, Hazards, number 127, 2014.

The available evidence suggests working night shifts “probably” causes cancer in humans, a group of top experts has concluded.

In June 2019, the working group of 27 scientists from 16 countries met at the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France, to finalise the evaluation of the carcinogenicity of night shift work. The working group included scientists whose work had previously reached divergent conclusions, some sceptical of a link between night shifts and breast cancer and some strongly supportive of an association.

The group assessment will now become the official IARC cancer rating for night shift work, and will be published in volume 124 of the IARC Monographs.

Writing in the Lancet Oncology in July 2019, the authors note: “Overall, the Working Group concluded that a positive association has been observed regarding night shift work and breast cancer; however, given the variability in findings between studies, bias could not be excluded as an explanation with reasonable confidence.”

They also noted studies “provide some evidence that night shiftwork is positively associated with risk of prostate and colorectal cancer; however, because the studies were few in number and the results lacked consistency, chance and bias could not be ruled out.”

The authors conclude: “In sum, the Working Group classified night shift work in Group 2A, ‘probably carcinogenic to humans’, based on limited evidence of cancer in humans, sufficient evidence of cancer in experimental animals, and strong mechanistic evidence in experimental animals.”

In a 24-7 economy, night work could be a growing threat to health. A TUC analysis of official figures last year indicated the number of people working night shifts in the UK has increased by more than 150,000 over the past five years. The union body said the number working nights now stands at more than 3 million workers – or one in nine of the total UK workforce.

• IARC news report.
• Carcinogenicity of night shift work, IARC Monographs volume 124 group, The Lancet Oncology, published Online First, 4 July 2019. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(19)30455-3

The UK union GMB is to launch an awareness campaign on the link between work in certain industries and bladder cancer.

The decision at the union’s annual Congress commits it to target a problem it says particularly affects workers in the male-dominated chemical dye and rubber industries. However, the union said the chemicals linked to bladder cancer also occur “in hair dyes, paints, fungicides, cigarette smoke, plastics, pollutant emissions from industrial installations, and metal and motor vehicle exhausts, which can affect both male and females.”

GMB says there are an estimated 100,000 men and women living with bladder cancer in the UK and approximately 15,000 new cases are diagnosed annually, making it the fifth most common cancer overall.

GMB London’s regional secretary, Warren Kenny, said: “Occupational bladder claims thousands of lives per year, and it is likely that official statistics are underestimated as there are many causes of the cancer, meaning the link to work is often not made. Due to the long latency before symptoms manifest, it is often perceived to be an older person’s condition. As such there has been little campaigning for preventative approaches and such an approach is long overdue.”

Kenny said the union would work with both the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Fight Bladder Cancer campaign to “provide a much needed focus on this overlooked cancer and help to provide access to decision-makers in industry and government who can help address the shortage of research funding and poor prioritisation of bladder cancer.”

• Resources: TUC occupational cancer guide. Work cancer hazards blog. Cancers and their work causes: An ITUC/Hazards at-a-glance guide to cancer hazards.

A victim of occupational cancer caused by toxic exposures while working at Samsung has won a decade long fight for compensation.

On 5 June 2019, Han Hye-kyung was notified her workers’ compensation claim had been approved by the South Korean compensation authority KCOMWEL.

Han, 41, was diagnosed with a brain tumour at the age of 27 in 2005. Four years earlier, in 2001, she had resigned from Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, where she had handled hazardous chemicals while soldering together LCD parts for six years. Han was only 17-years-old and still in high school when she began to work at Samsung.

In 2009, Han, together with her single mother, Kim Si-nyeo, petitioned unsuccessfully for workers’ compensation. However, in 2017 South Korea’s supreme court ordered KCOMWEL to posthumously pay workers’ compensation to a Samsung worker who died of a brain tumour. This decision paved the way for Han to request the re-evaluation of her workers’ compensation case. Two years later KCOMWEL finally decided in Han’s favour.

Both Han and her mother Kim are active members of grassroots campaign group SHARPS, which has spearheaded the campaign for justice for Samsung’s occupational disease victims. Both have attended “countless” SHARPS pickets, protests and rallies.

Despite the family facing terrible hardship, they turned down a surreptitious 2013 offer from Samsung executives of KRW 1 billion (U$1m/£665,000) and full medical coverage, because the settlement was conditional on the family severing its ties with SHARPS.

The New Zealand firefighters’ union (NZPFU) has said it has received ‘strong support’ in its campaign for official no-fault compensation for firefighters struck by a range of cancers. The union was speaking out after it enlisted the help of a Canadian union legal expert to promote the case for ‘presumptive’ legislation, where named cancers are presumed to be caused by work as a firefighter and compensated by the country’s no-fault Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC).

The New Zealand union praised the assistance it has received from Winnipeg Firefighters Union (UFFW) president Alex Forrest, a firefighter and lawyer and expert on firefighters’ cancer. NFPFU said with his help New Zealand was “well on the way to achieving cross-party support for presumptive legislation to recognise firefighters’ occupational cancers.”

The move would require a simple amendment of the compensation law to recognise an inclusive list of firefighters’ cancers as qualifying for payouts. To coincide with the Canadian expert’s visit, the union organised a presentation to MPs, who NZPFU said “had great questions and all left supportive of our campaign,” followed by a parliamentary lobby.

Presumptive cancer lists in North America cover compensation for brain, bladder, ureter, kidney, colorectal, oesophageal, breast, testicular, prostate, lung, skin, leukaemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma.

• Cancers and their work causes: An ITUC/Hazards at-a-glance guide to cancer hazards.

Female workers at South Korean semiconductor plants face a 1.59 times higher risk of contracting leukaemia and a 2.8 times higher risk of dying from the disease than other workers, according to the findings of the country’s first ever government backed study.

The risk of female workers in the industry dying from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma was 3.7 times higher. Study finding presented by the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA) also identified elevated risk ratios for thyroid cancer, stomach cancer, breast cancer, brain and central nervous system cancer, and kidney cancer.

The 10-year epidemiological study examined 201,057 current and former workers at six semiconductor companies, including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Its findings provide a conclusive official confirmation of claims made over the past decade by workers’ rights campaigners.

SHARPS, the campaign group that has fought a high profile campaign for semiconductor factory occupational disease victims, said the risks may have been underestimated as in-house subcontracted workers were not included in the analysis.

“In the cases of stomach, breast, and thyroid cancer, they need to examine whether the increases [in reports] are the result of night-time shift work or the effects of radiation exposure [at factories] rather than simply being due to more opportunities for health checks,” the group added.

Hwang Sang-gi, the SHARPS president and father of Samsung occupational cancer victim Hwang Yu-mi, said campaigners had been vindicated.

“When our Yu-mi applied for industrial accident recognition in 2007, Samsung insisted [her leukaemia] was an isolated case, and the government just parroted that position, so they didn’t end up taking responsibility. Now it has been proven that what we said 10 years ago is 100 per cent correct,” he said.

Global agrochemicals giant Monsanto has faced a double hit, ordered to make another massive cancer compensation payout and accused of compiling a potentially illegal dossier on its opponents.

On 13 May 2019, a jury in California awarded more than $2bn (£1.5bn) to a couple who said the best-selling weedkiller Roundup was responsible for their cancer. It is the third time that the German pharmaceutical group Bayer, which now owns Monsanto, has been ordered to pay damages over the glyphosate-based herbicide.

The jury ruled the company had acted negligently, failing to warn of the risks associated with the product. Bayer denied the allegations and says it will appeal. It insists that Roundup is safe to use.

The jury in Oakland, California, said Bayer was liable for plaintiffs Alva and Alberta Pilliod contracting non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after they used the product for years to landscape their home and other properties. “The jury saw for themselves internal company documents demonstrating that, from day one, Monsanto has never had any interest in finding out whether Roundup is safe,” said their counsel, Brent Wisner.

The jury awarded each of them $1bn in punitive damages as well as a total of $55m in compensatory damages. Bayer now faces more than 13,400 US lawsuits over Roundup’s alleged cancer risk.

The court award came after the French newspaper Le Monde  revealed on 9 May 2019 that government officials in the country are investigating a potentially illegal file compiled by Monsanto on critics of its chemicals and genetically modified crops.

The document was prepared for the company by PR agency Fleishman Hillard, which in 2018 also “helped Monsanto Company (now part of Bayer) develop their 2017 Sustainability Report: Growing Better Together.”

The PR company’s website recommends firms ‘get smart’ on reporting, with new approaches “ushering in an era of hybrid reporting that’s tailored to the particular needs of companies and their stakeholders. ”

Bayer says it has now dropped the global public relations firm.

Occupational cancer is the large cause of work-related deaths and the numbers affected are increasing, leading experts have warned.

A position paper authored by an international group of work cancer specialists, published in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine, notes “it is clear that occupational cancer now represents the primary cause for work-related deaths globally and in many regions of the world, and the numbers continue to grow. In spite of efforts for prevention and control by several international organisations, institutions and authorities, the level of occupational cancer mortality and morbidity has remained high.”

The paper cites recent estimates that indicated occupational cancer accounted for 27 per cent of the 2.4 million deaths due to work-related diseases. It notes: “In numerical terms, this estimate means that the number of deaths attributable to occupational cancer annually increased from 666,000 deaths in 2011 to 742,000 deaths in 2015. This increase could be explained by different variables such as the evidence on new carcinogens, the methods of estimation, changes in the industry distribution of workers and the growing and ageing of the population.”

The authors concluded that the need to define a global policy on occupational cancer prevention is an “urgent matter” requiring the “development of a priority action strategy to control and reduce occupational cancer as effectively as possible.”

Global trade union body ITUC has identified occupational cancer prevention as a priority issue, and has developed prevention guides and campaign materials.

• S Iavicoli, TR Driscoll, M Hogan and others. Position statement: New avenues for prevention of occupational cancer: a global policy perspective, Occupational & Environmental Medicine, volume 76, pages 360-362, 2019.
• Cancers and their work causes: An ITUC/Hazards at-a-glance guide to cancer hazards, April 2019. Also in French and Spanish.
• All out! Global union confederation ITUC wants to show killer chemicals the door, Hazards magazine, number 145, April 2019. Also in French and Spanish.

Exports of deadly substances including chrysotile asbestos and a slew of pesticides will not require a health warning after a handful of governments defended them at a United Nations conference.

The substances were being considered for inclusion on the UN Rotterdam Convention’s ‘prior informed consent’ (PIC) list, which would require exporters to inform importers of the potential risks. Both chrysotile and paraquat had also been recommended for inclusion by UN officials on numerous previous occasions.

Commenting on the failure of the UN Conference of the Parties to list chrysotile despite the long-term support of the overwhelming majority of governments for the move, Phillip Hazelton of the Asian Ban Asbestos Network (ABAN) said: “The long term blockage to listing chrysotile, the world’s biggest occupational disease killer, must end and it’s up to those countries who are as frustrated as we are, to do it. They must come forward with a viable solution to break the blockade on the listing of chrysotile asbestos.”

Pesticides Action Network Asia Pacific (PANAP) expressed deep concern at the failure of the conference to list four of the five highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) proposed for inclusion on the PIC list.

A small number of countries blocked the listing of paraquat (Guatemala, Indonesia, Chile), fenthion (Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda), acetochlor (Argentina, Chile), and carbosulfan (Kenya, India, Brazil).

“It is highly disappointing that some policymakers still chose to misinterpret the Convention and to ignore the body of evidence of the serious harm these pesticides cause to human health and the environment,” said Sarojeni Rengam, PANAP executive director.

“The incredibly slow pace with which pesticides are listed in the Rotterdam Convention – which doesn’t even constitute a ban, and only requires Prior Inform Consent in trade – show that existing mechanisms will not satisfactorily solve the problem of pesticides use.”

• CIEL news release.
• International Ban Asbestos Secretariat news report.
• Report of the outcome of the Conference of the Parties.