Call for law compliance to cut cancer deaths
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BOHS, the Chartered Society for Worker Health Protection, and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have called upon employers to comply with the legal exposure limits for known carcinogens. They have also urged the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to be robust in its enforcement of the law and the government to demonstrate the political will to prevent unnecessary loss of life from work-related cancers.
The organisations have claimed that HSE statistics highlight the unacceptably high number of deaths due to occupational cancers. BOHS said: "It is estimated that about 8,000 cancer deaths and some 13,500 newly diagnosed cancer cases each year could be due to work-related exposures.
"Furthermore, the UK is faced with the very real threat of an increasing occupational cancer burden. The medical statistician Dr Lesley Rushton issued the following bleak warning at the BOHS Annual Conference in 2013: 'In the absence of action, annual deaths from preventable occupational cancers in 2060 will have risen by 5,000 more than the current level of 8,000'."
BOHS is also offering free access to leading scientific research papers addressing the prevention of occupational cancers, which have been published in The Annals of Occupational Hygiene. To access these papers visit http://www.oxfordjournals.org/page/5874/15
BOHS president Mike Slater said: "We are concerned that too many employers are failing to tackle the risks associated with occupational cancer. Workers and employers should be aware that occupational cancer can and should be prevented. Occupational hygienists have the knowledge and skills to put in place cost effective, highly practical solutions which can control the complex risks associated with cancer."
