Occupational cancer is cancer caused by occupational hazards. Several cancers have been directly tied to occupational hazards, including chimney sweeps' carcinoma, mesothelioma, and others.
Occupational exposure to chemicals, dusts, radiation, and certain industrial processes have been tied to occupational cancer. Exposure to cancer-causing chemicals (carcinogens) may cause mutations that allow cells to grow out of control, causing cancer. Carcinogens in the workplace may include chemicals like anilines, chromates, dinitrotoluenes, arsenic and inorganic arsenic compounds, beryllium and beryllium compounds, cadmium compounds, and nickel compounds. [1] Dusts that can cause cancer leather or wood dusts, asbestos, [2] crystalline forms of silica, coal tar pitch volatiles, coke oven emissions, diesel exhaust and environmental tobacco smoke. [1] sunlight; radon gas; and industrial, medical, or other exposure to ionizing radiation can all cause cancer in the workplace. Industrial processes associated with cancer include aluminum production; iron and steel founding; and underground mining with exposure to uranium or radon. Shift work, which can disturb the circadian rhythm, has also been identified as a risk factor for some forms of cancer, in particular for breast cancer. [3] [4] [5]
Other risk factors for cancer include: [6] [7] [8]
Common cancers and their exposures and occupations include: [2]
Cancer | Source | Examples of Occupations |
---|---|---|
Bladder | Benzidine, beta-naphthylamine, 4-aminobiphenyl, arsenic | Rubber, leather, paving, roofing, printing and textile industries; paint/ dyeing products; chimney sweeping; machinists; hairdressers and barbers; truck drivers |
Kidney | Cadmium, trichloroethylene, herbicides, wood dust | Painting; metalworking; petroleum, plastics, and textile industries |
Larynx | Asbestos, wood dust, paint fumes | Metal working; petroleum, rubber, plastics, and textile industries |
Leukemia | Formaldehyde, benzene, ethylene oxide, pesticides | Rubber manufacturing; oil refining; shoemaking, funeral embalming |
Liver | Arsenic, vinyl chloride, aflatoxins | Plastic manufacturing |
Lung | Radon, secondhand smoke, asbestos, arsenic, cadmium, chromium compounds, diesel exhaust, sulfur mustard | Rubber manufacturing, paving, roofing, painting, chimney sweeping, iron and steel foundry work, welding |
Lymphoma | Benzene, 1, 3-butadiene, ethylene oxide, herbicides, insecticides | Rubber manufacturing, painting, hairdresser or barber |
Mesothelioma | Asbestos | Mining, railroad, automotive, plumbing, painting and construction industries; factory workers |
Nasal cavity and sinus | Mustard gas, nickel dust, chromium dust, leather dust, wood dust, radium | Textile and baking industry, flour milling, nickel refining, furniture and cabinet builders, shoemaking |
Skin | Arsenic, coal tars, paraffin, certain oils, sunlight | Chimney sweeping; outside jobs that involve a lot of sun exposure |
Firefighters have shown higher rates of certain types of cancer (respiratory, digestive, and urinary systems), and of all cancers combined, when compared to the general U.S. population. [9] This is linked to many aspects of the firefighting occupation such as exposure to smoke and other products of combustion that are known carcinogens, as well as being exposed to chemicals in the gear worn to protect the firefighter. [10]
Due to the lack of central and comprehensive sources of data, research on cancer rates amongst firefighters has been challenging. [11] [12] [13] [14] On July 7, 2018, Congress passed the Firefighter Cancer Registry Act of 2018 requiring the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to create the National Firefighter Registry designed to collect data on cancer rates among U.S. firefighters. [15] [16] [17]
Construction workers are at a higher risk of developing cancer from exposures at work compared to other occupations. [18] [19] [20]
The increased levels of dust and chemicals like asbestos at construction sites leads to workers being exposed. These long term exposures have been linked to the development of lung cancer. [19] Other factors related to construction work can also put the workers at an elevated risk of cancer such as sun exposure. Construction workers are often required to spend long hours working in the sun. Long periods of exposure to radiation from the sun can cause skin cancer. [20] [21]
Agricultural workers face higher rates of cancer development due to exposures on the job. [22]
Similar to construction workers, agricultural workers are exposed too many chemicals including known carcinogens. Workers in the agricultural field are also subject to long periods of exposure to radiation from the sun. All of these factors combine put the workers at and increased risk of developing cancers such as prostate cancer, multiple myeloma, and melanoma of the skin. [22]
An estimated 48,000 cancers are diagnosed yearly in the US that come from occupational causes; this represents approximately 4-10% of total cancer in the United States. [23] It is estimated that 19% of cancers globally are attributed to environmental exposures (including work-related exposures). [24] It is estimated that there are approximately 120,000 work-related cancer cases annually in the EU due to exposure to carcinogens at work. [25]
Many occupational cancers are preventable. Personal protective gear, workplace controls, and worker education can prevent exposure to carcinogens in the workplace. Tobacco smoking has also been shown to increase the risk of work-related cancers; decreasing or abstaining from smoking can decrease cancer risk. [2]
Agencies like the US Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration have developed safety standards and limits for chemical and radiation exposure. [2] International Labour Organization has also adopted Occupation Cancer Convention (C139) in 1979 for improvement of workplace safety conditions.
A carcinogen is any agent that promotes the development of cancer. Carcinogens can include synthetic chemicals, naturally occurring substances, physical agents such as ionizing and non-ionizing radiation, and biologic agents such as viruses and bacteria. Most carcinogens act by creating mutations in DNA that disrupt a cell's normal processes for regulating growth, leading to uncontrolled cellular proliferation. This occurs when the cell's DNA repair processes fail to identify DNA damage allowing the defect to be passed down to daughter cells. The damage accumulates over time. This is typically a multi-step process during which the regulatory mechanisms within the cell are gradually dismantled allowing for unchecked cellular division.
In organic chemistry, isocyanate is the functional group with the formula R−N=C=O. Organic compounds that contain an isocyanate group are referred to as isocyanates. An organic compound with two isocyanate groups is known as a diisocyanate. Diisocyanates are manufactured for the production of polyurethanes, a class of polymers.
A firefighter is a first responder trained in firefighting, primarily to control and extinguish fires that threaten life and property, as well as to rescue persons from confinement or dangerous situations. Male firefighters are sometimes referred to as firemen.
An occupational injury is bodily damage resulting from working. The most common organs involved are the spine, hands, the head, lungs, eyes, skeleton, and skin. Occupational injuries can result from exposure to occupational hazards, such as temperature, noise, insect or animal bites, blood-borne pathogens, aerosols, hazardous chemicals, radiation, and occupational burnout.
Occupational hygiene is the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, control, and confirmation (ARECC) of protection from risks associated with exposures to hazards in, or arising from, the workplace that may result in injury, illness, impairment, or affect the well-being of workers and members of the community. These hazards or stressors are typically divided into the categories biological, chemical, physical, ergonomic and psychosocial. The risk of a health effect from a given stressor is a function of the hazard multiplied by the exposure to the individual or group. For chemicals, the hazard can be understood by the dose response profile most often based on toxicological studies or models. Occupational hygienists work closely with toxicologists for understanding chemical hazards, physicists for physical hazards, and physicians and microbiologists for biological hazards. Environmental and occupational hygienists are considered experts in exposure science and exposure risk management. Depending on an individual's type of job, a hygienist will apply their exposure science expertise for the protection of workers, consumers and/or communities.
Chemical hazards are hazards present in hazardous chemicals and hazardous materials. Exposure to certain chemicals can cause acute or long-term adverse health effects. Chemical hazards are usually classified separately from biological hazards (biohazards). Chemical hazards are classified into groups that include asphyxiants, corrosives, irritants, sensitizers, carcinogens, mutagens, teratogens, reactants, and flammables. In the workplace, exposure to chemical hazards is a type of occupational hazard. The use of personal protective equipment may substantially reduce the risk of adverse health effects from contact with hazardous materials.
Environmental hazards are those hazards that affect biomes or ecosystems. Well known examples include oil spills, water pollution, slash and burn deforestation, air pollution, ground fissures, and build-up of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Physical exposure to environmental hazards is usually involuntary
Occupational lung diseases comprise a broad group of diseases, including occupational asthma, industrial bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), bronchiolitis obliterans, inhalation injury, interstitial lung diseases, infections, lung cancer and mesothelioma. These can be caused directly or due to immunological response to an exposure to a variety of dusts, chemicals, proteins or organisms. Occupational cases of interstitial lung disease may be misdiagnosed as COPD, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, or a myriad of other diseases; leading to a delay in identification of the causative agent.
An occupational hazard is a hazard experienced in the workplace. This encompasses many types of hazards, including chemical hazards, biological hazards (biohazards), psychosocial hazards, and physical hazards. In the United States, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conduct workplace investigations and research addressing workplace health and safety hazards resulting in guidelines. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) establishes enforceable standards to prevent workplace injuries and illnesses. In the EU, a similar role is taken by EU-OSHA.
Workplace health surveillance or occupational health surveillance (U.S.) is the ongoing systematic collection, analysis, and dissemination of exposure and health data on groups of workers. The Joint ILO/WHO Committee on Occupational Health at its 12th Session in 1995 defined an occupational health surveillance system as "a system which includes a functional capacity for data collection, analysis and dissemination linked to occupational health programmes".
The epidemiology of cancer is the study of the factors affecting cancer, as a way to infer possible trends and causes. The study of cancer epidemiology uses epidemiological methods to find the cause of cancer and to identify and develop improved treatments.
Reproductive toxicity refers to the potential risk from a given chemical, physical or biologic agent to adversely affect both male and female fertility as well as offspring development. Reproductive toxicants may adversely affect sexual function, ovarian failure, fertility as well as causing developmental toxicity in the offspring. Lowered effective fertility related to reproductive toxicity relates to both male and female effects alike and is reflected in decreased sperm counts, semen quality and ovarian failure.
A physical hazard is an agent, factor or circumstance that can cause harm with contact. They can be classified as type of occupational hazard or environmental hazard. Physical hazards include ergonomic hazards, radiation, heat and cold stress, vibration hazards, and noise hazards. Engineering controls are often used to mitigate physical hazards.
The health effects of radon are harmful, and include an increased chance of lung cancer. Radon is a radioactive, colorless, odorless, tasteless noble gas, which has been studied by a number of scientific and medical bodies for its effects on health. A naturally-occurring gas formed as a decay product of radium, radon is one of the densest substances that remains a gas under normal conditions, and is considered to be a health hazard due to its radioactivity. Its most stable isotope, radon-222, has a half-life of 3.8 days. Due to its high radioactivity, it has been less well studied by chemists, but a few compounds are known.
Exposure to ionizing radiation is known to increase the future incidence of cancer, particularly leukemia. The mechanism by which this occurs is well understood, but quantitative models predicting the level of risk remain controversial. The most widely accepted model posits that the incidence of cancers due to ionizing radiation increases linearly with effective radiation dose at a rate of 5.5% per sievert; if correct, natural background radiation is the most hazardous source of radiation to general public health, followed by medical imaging as a close second. Additionally, the vast majority of non-invasive cancers are non-melanoma skin cancers caused by ultraviolet radiation. Non-ionizing radio frequency radiation from mobile phones, electric power transmission, and other similar sources have been investigated as a possible carcinogen by the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer, but to date, no evidence of this has been observed.
Cancer is caused by genetic changes leading to uncontrolled cell growth and tumor formation. The basic cause of sporadic (non-familial) cancers is DNA damage and genomic instability. A minority of cancers are due to inherited genetic mutations. Most cancers are related to environmental, lifestyle, or behavioral exposures. Cancer is generally not contagious in humans, though it can be caused by oncoviruses and cancer bacteria. The term "environmental", as used by cancer researchers, refers to everything outside the body that interacts with humans. The environment is not limited to the biophysical environment, but also includes lifestyle and behavioral factors.
Occupational toxicology is the application of toxicology to chemical hazards in the workplace. It focuses on substances and conditions that people may be exposed to in workplaces, including inhalation and dermal exposures, which are most prevalent when discussing occupational toxicology. These environmental and individual exposures can impact health, and there is a focus on identifying early adverse affects that are more subtle than those presented in clinical medicine.
Occupational cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are diseases of the heart or blood vessels caused by working conditions, making them a form of occupational illness. These diseases include coronary heart disease, stroke, cardiomyopathy, arrythmia, and heart valve or heart chamber problems. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and worldwide. In the United States, cardiovascular diseases account for one out of four deaths. The 6th International Conference on Work Environment and Cardiovascular Diseases found that within the working age population about 10-20% of cardiovascular disease deaths can be attributed to work. Ten workplace stressors and risk factors were estimated to be associated with 120,000 U.S. deaths each year and account for 5-8% of health care costs.
There are unique occupational health issues in the casino industry, many of which are attributed to repetitive tasks and long-term exposures to hazards in the casino environment. Among these issues are cancers resulting from exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke, musculoskeletal injury (MSI) from repetitive motion injuries while running table games over many hours, and health issues associated with shift work. Safety and regulatory agencies in the United States have implemented regulatory measures to address the specific risks associated with workers in the casino industry, and have made efforts to identify additional possible risks to casino workers, including noise-induced hearing loss and heavy metal poisoning from exposure to dust from coins.
The National Firefighter Registry for Cancer (NFR) is a voluntary registry of firefighters in the United States used to evaluate cancer rates and risk factors in the U.S. fire service through collecting relevant occupational, lifestyle, and health information on firefighters. It aims to use these data to reduce cancer in firefighters.