In 2013, the World Health Organisation’s cancer agency, IARC, appointed Sergey Kashansky, a pro-asbestos Russian government official, as a collaborating scientist on the IARC Asbest Study. Outraged scientists from the US, Canada and India, including retired US Assistant Surgeon General Richard Lemen, co-authored a 12 November 2013 protest letter to IARC director-general Christopher Wild. The letter noted: “It is, in our view, a dangerous precedent and entirely unacceptable that IARC has appointed as a collaborating scientist a person who works with the asbestos industry to defeat the efforts of the WHO to protect public health by ending the use of chrysotile asbestos.”

J Schüz, SJ Schonfeld, H Kromhout, K Straif, SV Kashanskiy, EV Kovalevskiy, IV Bukhtiyarov, V. McCormack. A retrospective cohort study of cancer mortality in employees of a Russian chrysotile asbestos mine and mills: Study rationale and key features, Cancer Epidemiology, volume 37, issue 4, pages 440–445, August 2013.

Researchers at Texas Tech University who looked at exposures to low levels of both arsenic and oestrogen found that low doses of both chemicals together – even at levels low enough to be considered “safe” for humans if they were on their own – can cause cancer in prostate cells.

J Treas and others. Chronic exposure to arsenic, estrogen, and their combination causes increased growth and transformation in human prostate epithelial cells potentially by hypermethylation-mediated silencing of MLH1, The Prostate, published online ahead of print, 26 June 2013. Texas Tech University news release. Risks 614.

A team from the Institute for the Environment at Brunel University has found that commonly applied “uncertainty factors” led to “ill-founded” assurances about the effects of chemical mixtures. The review, published in the journal Environmental Health, found no support for the “urban myth” that the default uncertainty factor is over-conservative.

OV Martin and others. Dispelling urban myths about default uncertainty factors in chemical risk assessment – sufficient protection against mixture effects?, Environmental Health, volume 12, number 53, 2013. Chemical Watch (subscription only). Risks 614.

Women who have worked decades on the night shift face more than double the risk of breast cancer, this Canadian study found. In the study of 1,134 cases and 1,179 controls, breast cancer odds ratios of 2.21 were found in those who had worked 30 or more years on nights. Nurses, cleaners, care workers, some shop workers, call centre workers and others who work night shifts for long periods can have double the risk of developing the disease than those who don’t, the new study indicates. The report concludes: “Long-term night shift work in a diverse mix of occupations is associated with increased breast cancer risk and not limited to nurses, as in most previous studies.”

Anne Grundy, Harriet Richardson, Igor Burstyn and others. Increased risk of breast cancer associated with longterm shift work in Canada, Occupational & Environmental Medicine, volume 70.2, pages 831-838, July 2013. Medical Daily. Huffington Post. Risks 612.

‘The long and winding road to an asbestos free workplace’ maps out the tortuous route towards a worldwide asbestos ban. The book, authored by some of the most prominent union and grassroots campaigners on asbestos, says in Europe the ban on asbestos needs to be complemented by pro-active inspection, identification and mapping of contamination; it adds that outside of Europe, the safety in use ‘fairy tale’ used to justify exports has to be exposed and the trade in the deadly fibre finally stopped.

The long and winding road to an asbestos free workplace, Jan Cremers and Rolf Gehring (editors), CLR Studies 7, 2013. Risks 612..

Global asbestos exports increased from 1,081,885 tons in 2011 to 1,327,592 tons in 2012. Canadian human rights campaigner Kathleen Ruff, writing on the Prevent Cancer Now website, puts the continuing trade in asbestos down to an industry public relations strategy that saw large sums of cash handed to researchers who were industry stooges.

Prevent Cancer Now report. Hazards asbestos webpages. Risks 612.

Groundbreaking measures to protect Australians from asbestos have become law. Minister for employment and workplace relations Bill Shorten welcomed the passing of the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency Bill 2013 by the Australian parliament. The Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency started work on 1 July 2013.

Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency. Risks 611,.

A global expert body on occupational health has called on the European Union to introduce stringent controls on endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). The Collegium Ramazzini, an international academy of 180 experts in environmental and occupational health from 35 countries, released a statement calling for new ways to test chemicals and to revise current approaches to risk management.

Collegium Ramazzini news release, Statement on Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals In The European Union and Letter to President Barroso and Commissioners. Risks 610.

A New York Supreme Court Appellate Division hearing in June 2013 upheld a New York Supreme Court ruling that found a series of scientific papers commissioned and used by US building products giant Georgia-Pacific (GP) in a bid to frustrate asbestos cancer compensation claims were potentially part of a “crime-fraud.”

Weitz & Luxenberg P.C. v. Georgia-Pacific LLC, No. 9535, 2013 WL 2435565 (N.Y. App. Div., 1st Dep’t June 6, 2013). For a full list of the alleged crime-fraud papers, and details of the case, see: A very particular crime, Hazards 123, July-September 2013.

Occupational cancer is the subject of a June 2012 special supplement to the British Cancer Journal, and includes eleven informative papers. Methodological approaches are discussed along with specific cancers and study limitations. Cancer sites include mesothelioma, sinonasal, lung, nasopharynx, breast, non-melanoma skin, oesophagus, soft tissue, and stomach. Carcinogens include asbestos, mineral oils, solar radiation, silica, diesel engine exhaust, coal tars and pitches, dioxins, environmental tobacco smoke, tetrachloroethylene and strong inorganic mists, and shift work. Lesley Rushton’s morbidity and mortality figure prepared for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) feature prominently, although these have been criticised, notably by Hazards magazine, for missing out entire groups of carcinogens and under-estimating the impact of others. HSE in turn has faced criticism for its inaction on some of the major killers identified in the Rushton research, particularly shiftwork (linked to breast cancer), diesel exhaust fumes (lung, bladder and possibly other cancers) and respirable crystalline silica (lung cancer). Some industry bodies have by contrast claimed the estimates over-state the toll.

Occupational Cancer in Britain, British Journal of Cancer, volume 107, issue S1 (S1-S108), Guest editors Lesley Rushton and Gareth Evans, supplement published 19 June 2012. Related editorial by Kurt Straif. The Telegraph.