Asbestos tragedy could be repeated
The Health and Safety Executive is heavily criticised for its approach to tackling workplace cancer in a report to just published by experts at Stirling University.
The figure for work related cancer deaths could be as high as 24,000, not the figure of 6,000 favoured by the Health and Safety Executive. It would appear that the epidemic is not getting the attention and money needed to tackle it.
Serious concern is expressed about the number of cancers being suffered by workers in the micro electronics industry, where it is said that there are significantly higher levels of breast and other cancers, and in metalworking and woodworking processes amongst others.
It’s alarming that the history of the asbestos cancer disaster could repeat itself. Asbestos was identified potentially dangerous at the beginning of the last century, but it wasn’t until recently that the law recognized that no exposure to the lethal substance is safe.
The health and safety executive is under resourced: you can expect a visit by an inspector to your workplace on average once every 13 years. It must be impossible to police effectively the use of potentially lethal substances at use in the workplace, particularly where smaller employers are concerned.
Workplace cancer inevitably affects manual workers to a greater extent and women are now as much at risk as men.
