A new resource on cancer and hazards available in the form of a continually-updated, annotated bibliography of occupational cancer research. The resource is produced by Hazards, the Alliance for Cancer Prevention and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
A new report from Breast Cancer Fund called Working Women and Breast Cancer: State of the Evidence, uncovers elevated breast cancer risk for working women. The report discovered over 20 occupations which carry a higher risk of breast cancer compared to the risk for the general population. They are:
Currently occupation is not considered a risk factor by most of the breast cancer charities. Shift work having only recently made it onto their radar. What are the implications for the non-consideration given to occupation by the cancer establishment? The continual focus on lifestyle risk factors will do nothing to stem the flow of breast cancer cases if occupational and environmental infleuncers are not taken into consideration. Have you ever been asked about your occupation when you visit your doctor? There is much we can do by way of prevention in the workplace using current legislation, much can be done by trade unions and activists to draw attention to this. The breast cancer establishment needs to recognise and address occupational breast cancer as a priority. Current cancer strategies need to focus on primary prevention of occupational and environmental risk factors. Not to do so would be to condemn thousands of women to a needless breast cancer diagnosis and death from breast cancer. We need greater emphasis on primary prevention, alongside better treatment and care if we are ever to see the end of the breast cancer epidemic.
The International Trade Union Confederation General Secretary Sharan Burrow pledged today that if you expose us, we’ll expose you. The pledge relates to the fact that most occupational cancer deaths could be prevented if measures to prevent them were not blocked, “a mixture of toxic marketing and regulatory failure has already condemned another generation to an early grave”.
Instead of action on prevention we are faced with “a toxic cocktail of denial and deceit that means more people than at any time in history will develop tumours caused by their job”.
It seems like manufactured doubt about hazards and risk factors win out: “a process of paralysis by analysis. Wherever stricter controls are proposed, industry representatives or their hired guns appear, challenging the science and predicting an economic catastrophe”.
The International Labour Organisation puts occupational cancer deaths at over 660,000/year. Womens cancer are largely ignored, compensation becomes a myth and corruption flourishes, people before profit becomes business as usual. Surely its time to get serious about occupational cancer in fact all preventable cancer linked to exposures. This pledge is in stark contrast to the statement of intent from our cancer task force – which completly ignores occupational cancer, or any cancer not thought to be ‘lifestyle ‘related.
Read the full ITUC pledge here:
Resources
New guide from the ITUC on Toxic work – stop deadly exposures today sets out why we want to remove toxic exposures from the workplace and how.
A new workplace cancer website, supported by the ITUC and produced by Hazards and the Alliance for Cancer Prevention. http://cancerhazards.org/
It provides all the latest news on occupational cancer, including emerging scientific evidence and union initiatives.
Find out more about activities on the 28th April International Workers Memorial Day #IWMD15
allianceforcancerprevention.org.uk 