The TUC has called for urgent action from the government to deal with the huge death toll from work-related cancer as research is published today (Wednesday 20th June) in the British Journal of Cancer Supplement into the incidence of cancers caused by work. It found that every year around 8,000 cancer deaths in Britain each year are linked to occupations which equates to around five per cent of all cancer deaths in Britain. Researchers used a list of work-related cancer causing substances identified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) to calculate the impact of work on cancer cases and deaths and discovered around 13,600 new cancer cases are caused by risk factors related to work each year. After asbestos, the main work-related risk factors were night shift-work - linked to around 1,960 female breast cancer cases, mineral oil from metal and printing industries - linked to around 1730 cases of bladder, lung and non-melanoma skin cancers, sun exposure - linked to around 1540 skin cancer cases, silica exposure - linked to 910 cancer cases and diesel engine exhaust - linked to 800 cases. "The researchers have found that around 13,600 new cancer cases every year are caused by risk factors related to work. At the same time the research acknowledges that this is likely to be a conservative number and the real toll could be even higher. He concluded: The research was funded by the HSE and is published in the form of 14 individual documents, all of which can be viewed and/or downloaded here Source: TUC |
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