|
01/12/2005.
Britain is facing an occupational cancer epidemic that could be killing up to 24,000 people every year, four times official estimates, according to a TUC report published on November 24.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) says that just four per cent of the UK's annual cancer death toll (one in three people in the UK will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, one in four will die from it) is as a result of exposure to carcinogens at work, which it says is equal to 6,000 deaths a year.
However, the Burying the evidence report by Hazards, the TUC-backed health and safety magazine, concludes that the incidence of occupational cancer in the UK is much higher, and suggests that it is between 12,000 and 24,000 deaths a year (the equivalent of 16 per cent of all cancer deaths in the UK).
Although there are limits regarding exposures to hazardous chemicals such as crystalline silica, radon, diesel engine exhaust, benzene and lead compounds in the UK, the TUC believes that many employers are risking the future well-being of their employees by not adhering strictly to the rules. More inspections of workplaces would make it difficult for employers to get away with needlessly exposing their staff to toxic substances, says the TUC.
'Burying the evidence' says that the reason why official figures so underestimate the scale of the problem in the UK is because HSE work in this area is based on now essentially flawed US research conducted almost 25 years ago.
The report believes that the failure of the HSE to upwardly revise its figures relating to the number of people who die each year as a result of occupational cancers is preventing the workplace cancer epidemic from being dealt with properly, and is exposing thousands of workers to untold risks.
'Burying the evidence' says that almost all the occupational cancer risk is being borne by less than a quarter (22 per cent) of the UK's workforce, the overwhelming majority of whom are manual workers. The report says that both the Government and employers are failing to take the dangers faced by these workers seriously. It also says that there is evidence that the numbers exposed to carcinogens at work could be increasing.
|
