Workplace Cancers Underreported

"The Secret History of the War on Cancer" by Devra Davis, just published by Basic Books, isn't getting the attention it should. Perhaps a new study by UK researchers reported by the BBC will help focus needed attention on one of its central claims: that the environment is a major contributor to cancer causation and any effective strategy for reducing incidence of the disease must focus attention on the workplace and community toxics that can lay hidden time bombs in peoples' bodies.

The new study claims that the British government’s 26-year-old figures on occupational cancer grossly underestimate both the numbers of workers exposed to cancer risks and the number who develop work-related cancers.
The existing figure, which estimates 6,000 work-related cancer deaths annually in the UK, are based on an influential 1981 study by Richard Doll and Richard Peto, commissioned by the now defunct U.S. Office of Technology Assessment.

That study, later published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, has been cited in over 441 scientific articles to debunk claims that environmental causes are significant contributors to cancer. Critiques of the Doll and Peto study point to the authors’ sole reliance on epidemiologic studies of workers in large industries and their failure to consider exposures in smaller workplaces, as well as the limitation of their analysis to deaths in those under age 65.

Last year a group of European researchers revealed that Doll had financial relationships with a number of industries that manufacture cancer-causing chemicals, including Monsanto, the Chemical Manufacturer’s Association, and Dow Chemical.

The new study, led by Andrew Watterson of Stirling University in Scotland, estimates that UK work-related cancer deaths are between 12,000 and 24,000 every year. Watterson and one co-author, it should be pointed out, have consulted with law firms representing workers involved in occupational cancer lawsuits.