The Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) is to raise formally its concerns about the Health and Safety Executive’s ‘no risk’ claim about cancer rates at a Greenock microelectronics factory. STUC said it intended to write to HSE chair Judith Hackitt “seeking an explanation how the HSE justifies issuing a press release with the heading ‘Research indicates no increased cancer risk at Greenock factory’ when the report quite clearly states that incidences for some types of cancer were higher than they had anticipated.” The study methodology was criticised by cancer experts from the UK and US prior to its start. In an open letter to HSE, they say the small sample size would not result in “statistically reliable findings” adding that this means it “is unlikely to give enough statistical power to detect 2-3 fold increases in risk for many types of cancer…” The signatories included Joe La Dou of the University of California’s School of Medicine, at the time the editor of the prestigious International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health (IJOEH), said the research plan was designed to fail and was “preposterous” (see Production lies, Hazards, number 76, 2001; Boffins damn chip study, Hazards 70, 2000).

Health and Safety Executive (HSE) study webpages and news release. A further study of cancer among the current and former employees of National Semiconductor (UK) Ltd, Greenock – 2010, HSE, August 2010 [pdf]. The Herald. BBC News Online. Risks 471, 28 August 2010. Production lies: Revealed! US chips firm’s secret PR strategy to undermine Silicon Glen health campaigners, Hazards, number 76, October-December 2001.