![[Basket]](images/basket.png){kind=small}
Your order![[cover image]](images/issue/BK201607.jpg)
Carcinogens
[ch 6: pages 98-100]As part of its safety manifesto, Health and safety: Time for change, the TUC published a bulletin on carcinogens. This set out that around 300,000 people are diagnosed with cancer in the UK every year, and that every year more than 150,000 people die from the disease. It estimated that of these around 20,000 cases a year are work-related and it says that all occupational cancers are avoidable.
The TUC explains that there is no safe exposure limit for any carcinogen and even levels well below the Workplace Exposure Limits (WELS) (see page 96) can lead to some workers developing cancer. And it says that the aim should be to remove all exposure to any known or suspected carcinogen in the workplace. “We should not accept levels which will continue to lead to workers developing avoidable cancers just because either the European Commission or HSE has decided that this level is ‘acceptable’”, it says.
Carcinogens in the workplace can be eliminated by changing processes, substituting for other substances or, where that is not possible, ensuring that levels are reduced as low as possible and workers are fully protected from any contact with a cancer-causing agent.
Examples of where a cancer-causing agent cannot be removed, but exposure by a worker to any risk can be removed, are radiographers and radiation, quarry workers to silica and bus mechanics to diesel exhaust fumes.
Employers should only use a carcinogen if there is no reasonable alternative and they are required to remove or reduce exposure “as far as is reasonable practical”.
With regard to new substances, trade unions support the “precautionary principle” which means that if there is a reasonable possibility that a substance may cause harm then there should be a presumption that it will and therefore it should be controlled. Unions are also calling for an enforcement-led campaign by the HSE and local authorities aimed at ensuring that employers who continue to expose their workers to carcinogens are prosecuted. Exposure to a WEL is not acceptable when removal or substitution is an option. The TUC bulletin can be found on its website (https://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/Carcinogens.pdf).
ETUC Campaign on occupational cancers
In 2016, the European trade unions launched a new campaign to strengthen the law on protecting workers from occupational cancer by updating the 25 year-old European Union (EU) Carcinogens and Mutagens Directive. Occupational cancer is the biggest work-related cause of death in the EU, according to the European Trade Union Congress (ETUC), with cancer-causing substances (carcinogens) threatening the health of one in five workers. The ETUC has identified a list of 50+ priority substances for which it says limit values must be included in a revised and updated directive.
Carcinogens in workplaces include silica and diesel engine exhaust, night work and new substances like synthetic nano-particles, while mutagens – which can affect the next generation – include endocrine disruptors (ECDs).
Like the TUC, the ETUC makes clear that all exposures are preventable and the trade union target is to eliminate occupational cancer throughout Europe. It points out that workplace trade union safety reps and health and safety committees have an important role in demanding that dangerous substances and processes are eliminated or substituted with less dangerous ones; and that work organisation is improved in order to avoid or minimise exposures to night and shift work.
It is also calling for workers exposed to carcinogens to have health surveillance after, as well as during, their employment; for the Hairdressers Agreement between employers and unions to be made a binding directive; for sun radiation to be included in the scope of the directive on artificial optical radiation; for rules to limit night work; and for Member States to have in place national plans for the safe removal of all asbestos.
In May 2016 the European Commission announced proposed changes to the Carcinogens and Mutagens directive to limit workplace exposure to 13 cancer-causing chemicals by including new or amended limit values. These set a maximum concentration for the presence of a chemical carcinogen in the workplace air.
“This is important news for the health of workers across Europe and a hard-won victory for workers and their trade unions,” said ETUC Confederal Secretary Esther Lynch. “Although some of the exposure limits are inadequate, and some substances are not included, this is a significant step forward. After 12 years of inaction, the European Commission has finally listened to demands to protect workers better from work-related cancer. Lynch confirmed that she expects the Commission to put forward exposure limits for at least 15 more substances by the end of 2016.