Occupational cancer kills more than 200 000 people a year

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BMJ 2007;334:925 (5 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39202.548588.DB

Occupational cancer kills more than 200 000 people a year

Kaushal Raj Pandey

More than 200 000 people, most of them in the developed world, die each year

from a workplace related cancer, the World Health Organization has said in a

press release.

A major rise in the incidence of occupational cancer can be expected in

developing countries in the coming decades as work processes involving the use

of carcinogens shift to countries with less stringent enforcement of

occupational health standards, WHO warns. These processes involve substances

such as chrysotile asbestos and pesticides and those used in production of tyres

and dyes.

The developed world presently has a higher rate of occupational cancer, the

result of the wide use 20 to 30 years ago of various carcinogenic substances

such as blue asbestos, 2-naphthylamine, and benzene, it adds. These countries

now have much tighter controls on the presence of these known carcinogens in the

workplace.

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http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/short/334/7600/925-g?etoc