Shiftwork has been recognised officially as a “probable” cause of cancer. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the cancer arm of the World Health Organisation, has said it will classify overnight shift work as a probable carcinogen after evidence was considered by a meeting of experts; IARC experts also ranked occupational exposure as a painter as carcinogenic to humans and as a firefighter as possibly carcinogenic to humans.

Kurt Straif and others. Carcinogenicity of shift-work, painting, and fire-fighting, The Lancet Oncology, volume 8, number 12, pages 1065-1066, December 2007.

A disastrous failure by chemical firms and the Health and Safety Executive to control one of the best known workplace carcinogens has been revealed by an HSE survey. HSE assessed occupational exposures to the industrial chemical MbOCA, which can cause bladder cancer and which has been linked to other cancers, and found controls and personal protective equipment (PPE) were inadequate, training was poor and exposure levels were unacceptable.

A survey of occupational exposure to MbOCA in the polyurethane elastomer industry in Great Britain 2005-2006, HSE, December 2007. Also see: Death Watch, Hazards 111, 2010.

Urgent action must be taken to address the toll of workplace and environmental cancers, a new report has concluded. Researchers from the Lowell Center for Sustainable Development in the USA who reviewed new evidence on cancer risks, said their findings “demonstrate why environmental and occupational cancers should be given serious consideration by policymakers, individuals, and institutions concerned with cancer prevention.”

Environmental and occupational causes of cancer: New Evidence, 2005-2007, Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, 2007.

The authorities in the French district of Seine-Saint-Denis, north-east of Paris, have issued a call for national action on work-related cancers. The petition’s sponsors, which includes unions and high profile officials of public, health, research and safety bodies, claim that a manual worker between the ages of 45 and 54 is at four times greater risk of dying from cancer than a same-age top manager.

Risks 330.

Britain is seriously underestimating the risk of contracting cancer at work, according to new research. A new study by Stirling University has found the figure could be four times higher than the official estimate and says HSE’s recommendations for action range “from complacent to non-existent.”

Stirling University/Hazards magazine news release. Rory O’Neill, Simon Pickvance and Andrew Watterson. Burying the evidence: How Great Britain is prolonging the occupational cancer epidemic, International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health (IJOEH), volume 13, number 4, pages 432-440, October-December 2007.

The findings of Phase 1 of the UK Health and Safety Executive’s project to estimate the current burden of occupational cancer specifically for Great Britain were published in 2007. The report concluded: “5.3% (8023) cancer deaths were attributable to occupation in 2005 (men: 8.2% (6366); women 2.3% (1657)). Attributable estimates for total cancer registrations are 13694 (4.0%); and for men: 10074 (5.7%) and women 3620 (2.1%). Occupational attributable fractions are over 2% for mesothelioma, sinonasal, lung, nasopharynx, breast, non-melanoma skin cancer, bladder, oesophagus, soft tissue sarcoma and stomach cancers.” HSE’s previous top line figure for occupational cancer deaths each year was just 6,000, based on the 1981 Doll/Peto report. The new figures were criticised for missing out many cancers entirely and under-estimated the extent of exposures and the numbers exposed to risks. Still, for well over a decade HSE had been basing its cancer strategy on adherence to a long-discredited under-estimate of occupational cancer risks.

HSE news release, 31 October 2007. Research Report 595 – The Burden of Occupational Cancer in Great Britain, HSE, 6 November 2007.  Main report – Results for bladder cancer, leukaemia, cancer of the lung, mesothelioma, non-melanoma skin cancer and sinonasal cancer. Methodology. Technical Annex 1: Leukaemia. Technical Annex 2: Sinonasal cancer. Technical Annex 3: Non-melanoma skin cancer.  Technical Annex 4: Mesothelioma.  Technical Annex 5: Bladder cancer. Technical Annex 6: Lung cancer.

There is no mention of cancer caused by occupational exposure in Australia’s national cancer prevention plan – it is instead focused on smoking, obesity and melanoma. Labouring under the misapprehension that occupational cancer in a modern economy is rare, or that occupational health and safety regulations protect those exposed, governments have taken a hands-off approach as 1.5 million Australian workers are exposed to cancer-causing agents every year.

Sydney Morning Herald. Risks 329.

Research suggests mobile phone usage for more than a decade greatly increases the risk of cancer. The study found that long-term users – and the phones have become a required tool for many workers – had double the chance of getting a malignant tumour on the side of the brain where they held the handset.

Lennart Hardell and others. Long-term use of cellular phones and brain tumours: increased risk associated with use for equal to or greater than 10 years, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, volume 64, pages 626-632, 2007 [abstract].

England’s smoking ban has led to healthier workplaces in the hospitality industry, according to new research. In the first report into the impact of the English ban, which was introduced in July, scientists discovered firm evidence of its benefits.

BBC News Online. Hazards smoking news and resources.

Documents linking industrial chemicals to cancer are being kept from the public gaze as a result of industry lobbying, a new report has claimed. OMB Watch says its report, ‘An attack on cancer research’, shows how industry has “repeatedly misused the Data Quality Act (DQA) to suppress important cancer-related information.”

An attack on cancer research: Industry’s obstruction of the National Toxicology Program, OMB Watch, August 2007. Risks 324.