The Gujarat government has imposed a blanket ban on the use of benzene by diamond polishing units across Gujarat. The move follows reports of four diamond workers from Surat having been diagnosed with aplastic anaemia due to exposure to benzene.

Times of India.

In 2005, US government Department of Labor increased the allowable worker exposure to diesel exhaust fume in thousands of mines. The move, which weakens a 2001 Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) standard for non-coal mines, has angered USW, the union representing miners in the metal, mineral and stone sectors. ‘Diesel fumes cause cancer and lung disease,’ said USW president Leo Gerard.

Confined Space, 7 June 2005. Risks 210,.

Wide-ranging review, subsequently revised. See May 2006 revision.

Prevention of Occupational and Environmental Cancers in Canada: A Best Practices Review and Recommendations, Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control, May 2005.

Secondhand smoke exposure has been linked conclusively to breast cancer, with half of all cases linked to workplace exposures. The Californian study found exposure to secondhand smoke increased the risk of breast cancer by 70 per cent. The data indicated exposure to secondhand smoke caused up to a fifth of new cases of breast cancer in women under 50. Almost half the risk came from exposure at work.

Kenneth C Johnson. Accumulating evidence on passive and active smoking and breast cancer risk, International Journal of Cancer, published online 31 May 2005.

The omission of occupational cancer from a new Health and Safety Executive online guide on metalworking fluids has been criticised by a top expert. Dr Frank Mirer, director of health and safety at US autoworkers’ union UAW, said in a letter to HSE: ‘I find the omission of a mention of occupational cancer in the new page on metalworking fluids to be a significant gap.

HSE news release, 19 May 2005 and metalworking fluids webpage. Risks 208.

Standards for chemical exposures worldwide are heavily influenced by those originating in the US – which is bad news for workers, because new research shows those standards are heavily influenced by industry. Using the carcinogen vinyl chloride as an example, US academics found industry influence on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standard-setting process had led to ‘weakened safeguards’. Writing in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, the researchers conclude “the efforts of the regulated industries often outweigh the ability of the public, unions and public interest groups to participate in developing regulations.”

Jennifer Beth Sass, Barry Castleman and David Wallinga. Vinyl chloride: A case study of data suppression and misrepresentation, Environmental Health Perspectives, published online 24 March 2005, doi:10.1289/ehp.7716 [abstract and full paper].

Passive smoking kills more than 11,000 a year in the UK – many more than previously thought, a study has found. The British Medical Journal study also gives a figure for people dying from second-hand smoke exposure in the workplace, putting the total at over 600 a year. Researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia compiled the report from UK databases of causes of death, employment, structure of households and levels of active smoking and exposure to passive smoking.

Konrad Jamrozik. Estimate of deaths attributable to passive smoking among UK adults: database analysis, BMJ, doi:10.1136/bmj.38370.496632.8F, published 2 March 2005. Risks 197.

Dr Samuel Epstein, emeritus professor of environmental and occupational medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago and author of several key books on cancer risks, says “based on minimal estimates” occupational carcinogenic exposures are responsible for 10 per cent of overall cancer mortality adding that for certain occupational exposures, mortality rates are much higher. He told Hazards magazine that “lifestyle academics” including Sir Richard Doll “have consciously or unconsciously become the well-touted and enthusiastic mouthpiece for industry interests, urging regulatory inaction and public complacency”, adding the “puristic pretensions of ‘the lifestylers’ for critical objectivity are only exceeded by their apparent indifference to or rejection of a steadily accumulating body of information on the permeation of the environment and workplace with industrial carcinogens and the impact of such involuntary exposures on human health.”

Cancer-gate. How to win the losing cancer war. Epstein S. ISBN 0-89503-354-2, Baywood Publishing Company Inc, USA, 2005.

There is powerful evidence that an outright ban on public smoking would save lives, doctors’ leaders from across the world say. A report by the British Medical Association’s Tobacco Control Resource Centre describes the success of anti-smoking laws in other countries. Ireland has seen a drop in cigarette sales and the US state California has reported fewer lung cancers.

Risks 194.

Women with jobs that involve metalworking fluids may have a higher risk of developing breast cancer, a preliminary study suggests. The new study looked at women who spent at least three years working at one of three large car manufacturing plants in the US. Among the nearly 4,700 women the researchers followed, the risk of breast cancer increased in tandem with exposure to soluble, oil-based metalworking fluids. Writing in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, the authors say: ‘This preliminary investigation revealed weak evidence of an association between lifetime cumulative exposure to soluble metalworking fluids and breast cancer risk.’

Deborah Thompson and others. Occupational exposure to metalworking fluids and risk of breast cancer among female autoworkers, American Journal of Industrial Medicine, volume 47, issue 2, pages 153-160, 2005.