The Industrial Injuries Advisory Council has refused to accept lung cancer caused by exposure to beryllium and its compounds at work as a prescribed industrial disease, a move that would have meant sufferers could apply for related state industrial injuries payouts. “The Health and Safety Executive review of the burden of occupational cancer highlighted the risks of developing a number of cancers following occupational exposures to chemical agents, including an association between beryllium and lung cancer. After reviewing the literature, the council concluded there was no consistent evidence to recommend adding lung cancer following beryllium exposure to the list of prescribed diseases for which people can claim Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit.” The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) gives beryllium and its compounds a top group 1 human cancer risk rating. According to IARC’s 2012 assessment: “Beryllium and beryllium compounds cause cancer of the lung.”
Toxic use reduction legislation took effect in the Canadian province of Ontario in January 2010. A December 2009 news release from the provincial government said the scheme would require regulated facilities in the manufacturing and minerals processing sectors track, report and develop plans to reduce the toxic substances they use, create and release. The requirement applied only to facilities currently reporting on emissions to the National Pollutant Release Inventory. It added these toxics reduction plans would “be available to the public as part of the government’s commitment to inform Ontarians about toxics.” But it added: “The implementation of the plans will be voluntary.” A supporting factsheet noted: “From the ranking exercise 34 substances, including 11 known or probable carcinogens, were prioritized. The ministry also reviewed carcinogens in consultation with Cancer Care Ontario and identified an additional 13 known or probable carcinogens for inclusion in the priority list.”
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has withdrawn advice on the dangers of working with lead after an investigation found it greatly under-estimated health risks that could be affecting over 100,000 workers. The HSE move came after a report by academics at Stirling University, published in Hazards magazine, said the official health and safety warnings about the dangers of lead were so complacent the watchdog was guilty of “extreme recklessness” with workers’ health.
The cancer risks posed by formaldehyde, a common workplace chemical already accepted to cause certain types of occupational cancer, are greater than previously thought. A meeting last month of International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) experts determined that sufficient evidence also exists to link formaldehyde with leukaemia, a cancer of the blood or bone marrow.
Thousands of UK workers are being exposed to levels of lead that can cause serious chronic health problems including cancer, major organ and brain damage. Using never before published data, Hazards reveals that the UK’s ‘safe’ lead exposure standard is placing these workers at risk of kidney and heart disease, brain damage, cancer and other serious disorders.
The Health and Safety Executive’s estimate of 4,000 asbestos related deaths a year falls well short of the real toll, campaigners and health experts have said. Consultant thoracic surgeon, John Edwards, commended the HSE campaign and said the safety watchdog’s figures are “an under-estimate, if anything” and Laurie Kazan-Allen, coordinator of the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS), said: “When mesothelioma and asbestosis deaths are added to fatalities caused by cancers of the lung, larynx, ovary and stomach – other cancers now linked to asbestos exposure – the huge price paid for the country’s failure to act on the asbestos danger becomes apparent.”
Workers exposed to a cocktail of chemicals may be suffering far more harm than previously considered, a study suggests. Results from a study of male rats published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, indicate that assessing the risk of chemicals one compound at a time will underestimate potential harm.
Sofie Christiansen and others. Synergistic disruption of external male sex organ development by a mixture of four anti-androgens, Environmental Health Perspectives, 2009 [abstract]. Full text [pdf]. Ecologist. Risks 424.
Workers who make the granite countertops popular in many household kitchens may be exposed to dangerous levels of radiation, a US study has found. Researchers found full-time granite workers could be exposed to radiation levels up to 3,000 times the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) radiation exposure limit for members of the general public.
Unions and employers in Europe’s furniture trade want strict limits on formaldehyde in furniture production. A joint declaration from the European Federation of Building and Wood Workers (EFBWW) and the European Furniture Manufacturers Federation (EFMF) calls for “legislation requiring that all materials used in furniture put on the market in the European Union (EU) have the lowest possible emission level based on the best available technology”.
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.
A continually-updated, annotated bibliography of occupational cancer research produced by Hazards magazine, the Alliance for Cancer Prevention and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
