On 20th June 2012, the British Journal of Cancer
published a supplement of 13 papers* that summarise the results of
a seven-year programme of collaborative work to estimate the number
of cancer cases and deaths caused by exposure to carcinogens or
carcinogenic process in the workplace. Accompanying this BJC
supplement, there are 25 technical reports summarising in detail
the estimates for twenty-three different cancer sites in the
body**.
Dr Lesley Rushton OBE from Imperial College has technically led
this work with input from other national and international experts
including HSL staff who have made a significant contribution.
During the early stages of the work Dr Gareth Evans, who leads
HSL's Immunology and Toxicology Team, managed the cancer burden
programme of work, while Charlotte Young and Terry Brown
from HSL's Epidemiology Team prepared the summaries of
evidence for fifteen of the twenty-three separate cancer site
reports and ten of the papers in the BJC supplement. Dr
Rushton and Dr Evans are also co-editors of the
supplement.
The overall aim of this project was to produce an updated
estimate of the current burden of occupational cancer specifically
for Great Britain. The primary measure of the burden of cancer used
in this project was the attributable fraction (the proportion of
cases that would not have occurred in the absence of exposure),
which was then used to estimate the attributable numbers. For 2005,
5.3% (8,023) of cancer deaths were attributable to occupation (men:
8.2% (6,366); women 2.3% (1,657)). Attributable estimates for total
cancer registrations are 13,694 (4.0%); and for men: 10,074 (5.7%)
and women 3,620 (2.1%). 56% of cancer registrations in men are
attributable to work in the construction industry (mainly
mesotheliomas, lung, bladder and non-melanoma skin cancers) and 54%
of cancer registrations in women are attributable to shift work
(breast cancer). This project is the first to quantify in detail
the burden of cancer due to occupation specifically for GB.
Dr Evans commented: "This has been a real marathon of a
project requiring a huge effort on the part of the multi-institute
team to sift through the evidence and prepare this numbers of
reports and papers. The HSL team can be proud of the contribution
they have made to work that is of national and international
significance".
*The abstracts for each paper are available as free downloads
from the BJC website at http://www.nature.com/bjc/index.html
** The reports will be made available as free downloads from the
HSE website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/index.htm