Occupational cancers the maincause of work-related deaths
Technological progress, new ways of organising work and sectoral shifts in the economy all call for a stronger focus on health and safety issues at the workplace. Figure 2.24 shows the number of deaths by occupational cancer in each EU country in 2011. Occupational cancers are the main cause of work-related mortality in the EU28 (53% of all work-related deaths). Each year they are responsible for the deaths of over 102,000 workers which is twenty times the number caused by occupational accidents. The latest estimates set the share of work-related cancers at 8% of all new cancer cases (6–12% for men and 3–7% for women). Occupational cancers area major source of social inequalities in health since blue collarworkers are much more affected than white-collar workers, due to greater risk factors such as exposure to carcinogens. The most important occupational carcinogens are asbestos, shift work, solar radiation, crystalline silica,diesel exhaust engine emissions and industrial chemicals such as pesticides, hexavalent chromium and heavy metals.
more information in Benchmarking Working Europe 2019 - Chapter 2 Labour market and social developments