PO BOX 199 SHEFFIELD S1 4YL ENGLAND WWW.HAZARDS.ORG Work cancer
prevention kit: Section 1 Introduction Burying workplace cancers
You don’t hear much about occupational cancer. You hear about
cancer the tragedy for the individual, cancer the challenge for
the medical profession, cancer the result of smoking and bad
diet. But at least one in every 10 cancers – and probably many
more – are the result of preventable, predictable workplace
exposures. The International Labour Organisation’s estimate of
over 609,000 work-related cancer deaths worldwide each year is
almost certainly a substantial under-estimate, but still amounts
to one work-related cancer death every 52 seconds. Asbestos is
the biggest industrial killer of all time, and kills thousands
from cancer every single week, at least one death every five
minutes. But it is not banned worldwide. Dozens of other
substances known to cause cancer are used, quite literally, in
industrial quantities in our workplaces, frequently with few
controls. This is not yest