Workplace and environmental exposures are a “huge” factor in the risks of developing cancer, an official French agency has said. Substances including tobacco, chemicals, asbestos and benzene in fuels are behind much of the rise in the incidence of cancers, according to the environmental and occupational health and safety agency Afsset.

Risks 414.

The UK’s occupational exposure limits for lead are leaving workers at risk of serious chronic diseases. The US-based Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) wants a blood lead level of 10 micrograms per 100 millilitres (µg/100ml) or more in adults to be accepted as “elevated ” – the current UK action level for blood lead in male workers is 50 µg/100ml, with workers not suspended until the level hits 60 µg/100ml.

Risks 411.

There’s lots of advice on what we work with and where we work, from chemicals to work at heights. But when it comes to when we work, it’s an entirely different matter – and, says Andrew Watterson, for shiftworkers that could be a serious problem. Includes a detailed criticism of the literature and of the Health and Safety Executive’s reluctance to regulate.

Hazards 106, April-June 2009. University of Stirling/Hazards news release.

Contact with hazardous substances at work is endangering the health of workers across Europe and nanotechnology is one of the risks causing most concern, an expert report has concluded. ‘Expert forecast on emerging chemical risks’, published by the Bilbao-based European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA), identifies the main groups of substances which could pose new and increasing risks to workers, contributing to diseases which range from allergies, asthma and infertility to cancers.

Risks 400.

Unions are calling for hundreds of the most hazardous workplace chemicals to be subject to tight control under the European Union’s chemicals law, REACH. The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) presented to the European Parliament its list of 306 priority chemicals for authorisation under REACH.

ETUC news release and Trade Union Priority List for REACH authorisation and related documentation. HSE REACH webpages. Risks 400.

The Industrial Injuries Advisory Council has refused to recognise bladder cancer in cadmium exposed workers as a prescribed industrial disease. IIAC noted: “The council reviewed the occupational literature following suggestions of an association between non-occupational cadmium exposure and bladder cancer. After reviewing the evidence, the council concluded that while there may be some evidence that cadmium exposed workers had more risk of genito-urinary cancers, overall there was insufficient evidence to recommend changes to the list of prescribed diseases for which people can claim Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit.”

Cadmium and genito-urinary cancers, IIAC position paper 24.

A UK manufacturing body has urged employers to better assess health risks in the workplace and has conceded firms are ignoring occupational cancer risks. Steve Pointer, head of health and safety policy at manufacturers’ lobby group the EEF, admitted to Personnel Today magazine that some firms were too complacent and failed to protect their employees. ‘Some are just ignoring the risks entirely and this could result in civil claims or prosecutions by either the Health and Safety Executive or local authorities,’ he said.

Personnel Today. Risks 397.

The UK government’s workplace health and safety watchdog has called for “a precautionary approach” to the use of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) information sheet says: “If their use cannot be avoided, HSE expects a high-level of control to be used,” adding: “It is good practice to label the material ‘Caution: substance not yet fully tested’.”

Risk management of carbon nanotubes, HSE information sheet, March 2009 [pdf]. Risks 397.

Researchers used a Job Exposure Matrix (JEM) to estimate which jobs involve exposure to endocrine disrupters. They found: “Exposure to any chemical group was unlikely for 238 job titles (67 per cent), whereas 102 (29 per cent) job titles were classified as possibly (17 per cent) or probably (12 per cent) exposed to one or several endocrine disruptors. The remaining 13 job titles provided too little information to classify exposure.” The PAHs, pesticides, phthalates, organic solvents, alkylphenolic compounds and metals were often linked to a job title in the JEM. The remaining chemical groups were found to involve very few occupations. The paper notes: “In order to select potential endocrine disruptors for inclusion in the JEM, information was obtained from the report, chemicals purported to be endocrine disruptors by the Institute for Environment and Health in the UK, the website www.ourstolenfuture.org by Colborn et al and the World Health Organization report ‘Global assessment of the state-of-the-science of endocrine disruptors’. Additional information was identified from research articles for which in some cases secondary literature sources were used.”

MM Brouwers, M van Tongeren, AA Hirst and others. Occupational exposure to potential endocdrine disruptors: further development of a job exposure matrix, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, volume 66, pages 607-614, 2009.

Britain’s top computer chip companies refused to spend less than the price of a couple of pints per employee to research the cancer risks in their industry. The UK’s multi-billion pound electronics industry, the world’s fifth largest with 25,000 employees, defied the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and government who asked the industry to contribute to the £600,000 report over four years. The union Unite pledged £60,000. It calculates it would cost the industry just £6 a year for each employee to fund the potentially life-saving research.

Risks 396.