The call was made in a new working paper entitled Eliminating Occupational Cancer in Europe and Globally, written by Professor Jukka Takala, former director of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work and published by the European Trade Union Institute.
Dr Adrian Hirst, president of BOHS, said: “BOHS fully supports this important call for a more ambitious target with regard to occupational cancer. We also agree that with today’s solutions, most or all of occupational cancer deaths and lost years of life can be eliminated. In practical terms, evidence-based policies and practices have been shown to produce results in tackling occupational cancer and these can and should be implemented by means of Europe-wide and international collaboration.
"For all of these reasons... the need for further research into occupational cancer cannot be used as an excuse for doing nothing."
The paper says cancer at work is a serious but preventable disease which is rapidly becoming the biggest killer at places of work in most countries. In the UK, research suggests there are at least 8,000 deaths each year due to occupational cancer.Previous global estimates on occupational cancers established that 32% of the deaths in the world related to work are associated with cancers.
However, the paper warns that occupational cancers are quite rapidly being globalised and in many industrialising countries, the percentage of occupational cancer deaths among all work-related deaths is approaching that of the high-income countries. For example, in the EU, occupational cancer deaths are already at 53% of all work-related deaths.
The International Labour Organisation has estimated that 666,000 deaths are caused by occupational cancer globally every year, double that of occupational accidents. In the EU, 102,500 occupational cancer deaths take place each year, 20 times the number caused by occupational accidents. The UK’s share of this burden is estimated at 13,330. There is no doubt that cancer is the biggest killer at places of work in high income countries.
