A report that concluded nearly half of cancers diagnosed in the UK each year – over 130,000 in total – are caused by avoidable lifestyle ‘choices’ including smoking, drinking and eating the wrong things, has been criticised for downplaying occupational and environmental cancer risks and the social class effects that consign many workers and their families to multiple risks.

D Max Parkin and others. The fraction of cancer attributable to lifestyle and environmental factors in the UK in 2010, British Journal of Cancer, volume 105, Issue S2 (Si-S81), 6 December 2011. Alliance for Cancer Prevention news release. BBC News Online. The Guardian and related letters. Risks 536, 17 December 2011.

Tens of thousands of people in the UK die every year as a result of dust exposures at work. It’s all preventable, unions say. And they are sick of our official workplace health guardian, the Health and Safety Executive, saying it’s just a bit of a ‘nuisance’. Many of the exposures are linked to chronic disorders, including cancer.

Hazards 116, October-December 2011.

A draft law to protect workers from electromagnetic fields (EMF) could leave workers at deadly risk, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has warned. The European Commission’s draft directive, published in June, is “short-changing workers” ETUC has charged and only looks at short-term effects of the possibly cancer causing exposures.

ETUI news release. ETUC response to the consultation [pdf].

David Egilman, rebutting a defence of asbestos industry financed scientist David Bernstein’s work by UK professor Ken Donaldson, points out the standard protocol for testing fibres for carcinogenicity in humans is a two-year animal inhalation study – not a five-day study of the sort overseen by Bernstein. Bernstein has used the test to argue chrysotile was less “biopersistent” so less harmful. Although the two-year test was endorsed by an expert government panel – of which Bernstein was a member – in the mid-1990s, Bernstein decided the five-day test would suffice. Egilman, a Brown University professor who has been an expert witness for asbestos plaintiffs, noted “the key question is… do the fibres persist long enough to induce the disease (eg. induction of mutations when cancer is the outcome of interest)? The answer to this question is clearly yes.”

K Donaldson, G Oberdorster. Continued controversy on chrysotile biopersistence, International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health (IJOEH), volume 17, number 1, pages 98-99, 2011; and rebuttal by David Egilman pages 99-102.

A major US public relations company is attempting to derail a move to ban asbestos in Malaysia, but has refused to reveal who is funding its activities. Washington DC-based APCO Worldwide, whose previous credits including working for the tobacco industry to frustrate US government cancer prevention efforts, “is seeking to undermine an initiative to protect people in Malaysia from cancer caused by asbestos,” said Kelle Louaillier, president of Corporate Accountability International.

RightonCanada news release. Letter sent to Margery Kraus, President & CEO, APCO Worldwide, Washington, DC: Disassociate yourself from the discredited and deadly propaganda of the asbestos industry, health defenders tell APCO Worldwide. Montreal Gazette. Vancouver Sun.  Risks 526.

The Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (IIAC) has recommended adding lung cancer in coke oven workers to the list of prescribed industrial diseases for which state benefits are payable. In a 1986 review, it declined to make this recommendation. IIAC’s 2011 report noted: “The Council recommends that lung cancer associated with (i) at least five years in total of work at the top of a coke oven or (ii) at least 15 years in total of coke oven work, should be added to the list of prescribed diseases. For workers who move between these coke oven jobs, and whose employment in top oven work amounts to less than five years in total, we recommend that each year of top oven work be counted as contributing three years towards the greater target of 15 years, as set out in further detail in our report.” The recommendation was accepted by government, and added to the listing of prescribed disease D10, primary carcinoma of the lung.

Lung cancer in coke oven workers, Cm 8163, IIAC, 13 September 2011.

Firefighters who toiled in the wreckage of the World Trade Center in 2001 were 19 per cent more likely to develop cancer than those who were not there, a new study has found. The findings, published in the medical journal The Lancet, came from a study of almost 10,000 New York City firefighters, most of whom were exposed to the dust and smoke created by the fall of the twin towers.

David J Prezant and others. Early assessment of cancer outcomes in New York City firefighters after the 9/11 attacks: an observational cohort study, The Lancet, volume 378, issue 9794, pages 898-905, 3 September 2011. New York Times.

The TUC is calling for urgent action to reduce dust levels in the workplace, a problem it says is responsible for thousands of deaths in the UK every year. In new guidance sent out to all union safety reps, the TUC argues the current workplace dust exposure standards are “totally inadequate.” It cites research showing that a considerable number of the cases of cancer and lung diseases caused by dusts come from exposure that is well below the current legal limit.

TUC news release. Dust in the workplace, TUC, September 2011 [pdf]. Risks 521.

Simple measures to reduced radon exposures in workplaces could save dozens of lives every year, latest figures suggest. The Health Protection Agency says radon, a naturally occurring radioactive gas released by certain rocks and which can seep into buildings, accounts for about 1,000 deaths a year in the UK – and almost one in five of these deaths is thought to be linked to exposures in the workplace.

Risks 520. The burden of occupational cancer in Great Britain, HSE, 2010 [pdf]. UNISON radon at work guide [pdf].

Samsung Electronics, the world’s leading maker of computer memory chips, has been ordered by the Korean government to come up with detailed plans to improve safety at its semiconductor production facilities. A report in the Korea Joongang Daily says Samsung is being required to disclose information on toxic chemicals to its employees, as well as hire doctors to deal with workers’ health issues.

SHARPS Stop Samsung campaign. Risks 520.