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News list
28 April 2018 - World Day for Safety and Health at Work: ‘Union workplaces are safer workplaces’
This year on 28 April - the World Day for Safety and Health at Work – the union-selected global theme is ‘Union workplaces are safer workplaces’. “Worldwide, poor working conditions kill a worker every 11 seconds. All these deaths are avoidable, yet the body count is increasing”, warns Sharan Burrow, the General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
United States: New findings show asbestos-related deaths estimated at more than double previously reported
The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), an independent nonprofit dedicated to preventing asbestos exposure, announced on 16 April new findings via research from Jukka Takala, President of the International Commission of Occupational Health (ICOH).
EU-OSHA calls new measures to protect port workers
On 10 April, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) has released a new study that reviews the risks to workers when opening fumigated shipping containers. The study identifies significant gaps in preventive measures and makes recommendations that should be implemented to improve the safety and health of workers.
Mortalité en France : un rapport met en évidence de très grandes disparités en fonction de la profession
Les ouvriers ont un taux de mortalité prématurée (avant 65 ans) supérieur à la population générale française, révèle une étude publiée début avril par l’agence nationale française de santé publique (« Santé publique France »). Les tumeurs malignes jouent un rôle important dans cette surmortalité prématurée dans la population ouvrière masculine.
Une nouvelle enquête alerte sur l’état de santé des personnels infirmiers
Plus de 40% des infirmiers estiment que leur travail a souvent des répercussions sur leur santé, révèle une enquête française rendue publique début avril par l’Ordre national des infirmiers.
United States: Black lung disease on the rise
An article published on 6 February 2018 in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health had identified 416 cases of progressive massive fibrosis, commonly called black lung disease, among coal miners in central Appalachia from 2013 to 2017. New cases of black lung had been rare until recently, but this study suggests that the incidence is rising.
Spotlight on work-related skin cancers. Dermatologists tell the EU it’s ‘time to act’.
When it comes to occupational cancers, UV radiation is rarely highlighted as a major risk compared to other carcinogens such as solvents or toxic dust. On 27 March an association of dermatologists reminded policymakers that skin cancers are the most widespread form of work-related cancers in the European Union. They called on the European Union to improve the European legislation on workers’ health protection in order to strengthen prevention in the workplace and ensure more widespread recognition of skin cancers as work-related illnesses.
The European Parliament wants to protect workers from diesel exhausts
On 27 March the European Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs adopted its position on the second stage of the revision of the Directive on the prevention of work-related cancers. The Commission’s initial proposal has been amended in a number of sections with a view to strengthening the fight against occupational cancers. The most important amendments relate to diesel exhausts, to which some 3 million European workers are exposed.
Québec: night work most common cause of work-related cancer
Encompassing 14 % of Québec workers, night work is the most common cause of work-related cancer, according to a report published in May 2017 by the Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST).
Belgium: effects of cancer recognised as a disability
In its ruling of 20 February 2018 the Brussels Labour Court equated the effects of cancer to a disability. The case involved a shop employee whose employer had refused to adapt her working hours to allow her to return to work on a part-time basis after an absence of two years following cancer treatment. The employee had in the end been laid off.
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