‘This man knows all about cancer’ accuses the UK of ignoring an occupational cancer epidemic and calls for far greater efforts to be put into preventing work-related cancer deaths. HSE’s systematically disappears real cancers from its statistics, by dismissing or ignoring risks by job, by industry or by substance. The report notes: “HSE has instead adopted a ‘not me’ strategy. From formaldehyde to trichloroethylene to wood preservatives to toxic metals like lead, HSE responded to alerts about cancer risks with a defence of the status quo. In some cases, like formaldehyde, its first instinct was to back the industry ‘no problem’ line.” For nearly three decades, HSE stood by a ‘best available estimate’ of 6,000 UK occupational cancer deaths a year, based on an industry-friendly 1981 US paper. In 2008, this figure was revised up to around 8,000 deaths and over 13,500 new cases a year, when HSE finally got around to attempting a genuine UK based analysis. However, even this repeated errors in earlier analyses, and systematically excluded swathes of cancers from the body count.

This man knows all about cancer, Hazards, number 117, 2012. Alliance for Cancer Prevention blog.