|
Carcinogens in the News (CIN) is a monthly digest of media articles, government reports, and academic literature related to the carcinogens CAREX Canada has classified as important for surveillance in Canada. Articles included in this digest are for information purposes only. External studies are not evaluated for scientific merit by CAREX Canada.
|
|
The Lancet – September 26, 2023
Women interact with cancer in complex ways, as healthy individuals participating in cancer prevention, as patients, as health professionals, researchers, policymakers, and as unpaid caregivers. In all these domains, women often are subject to overlapping forms of discrimination, such as due to age, race, ethnicity and socio-economic status, that render them structurally marginalized. These myriad factors can restrict a women’s rights and opportunities to avoid cancer risks, are a barrier to diagnosis and quality cancer care, maintain an unpaid caregiver workforce that is predominantly female, and hinder women’s professional advancement. The Lancet Commission on women, power and cancer was created to address urgent questions at the intersection of social inequality, cancer risk, and outcomes, and the status of women in society.
|
|
United States (U.S.) Department of Labor – September 25, 2023
The U.S. Department of Labor announced that its Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) today launched a new initiative focused on enhancing enforcement and providing compliance assistance to protect workers in the engineered stone fabrication and installation industries. Supplementing OSHA's current National Emphasis Program for Respirable Crystalline Silica, this initiative will focus enforcement efforts on industry employers to make sure they're following required safety standards and providing workers with the protections required to keep them healthy. It establishes procedures for prioritizing federal OSHA inspections to identify and ensure prompt abatement of hazards in covered industries where workers face exposure to high levels of silica dust.
|
|
Gynecologic Oncology – September 22, 2023
Air pollution, including small particulate pollution, has been understudied in gynecologic oncology. The authours performed a county-level ecological study to examine the association between ambient particulate matter exposure and ovarian cancer incidence in the United States. The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results 21 database was utilized to identify incidence rates of ovarian cancer by county from 2000-2016. Data from the Environmental Protection Agency network of air quality monitoring sites was used to calculate annual average PM2.5 levels. 98,751 patients were identified with ovarian cancer from 725 counties and 21 cancer registries. There is an association between exposure to PM2.5 air particulate matter and the incidence of epithelial ovarian cancer and ovarian cancer overall.
|
|
The Tyee – September 18, 2023
An investigation reveals regulations in place for outdoor workers during Canada’s wildfire seasons have not done enough to protect workers like tree planters. Silviculture safety and wildfire experts are calling on the provinces and territories to create work safety regulations specific to wildfire smoke that include monitoring air quality and introducing clear and enforceable measures to reduce exposure. The job hazard is almost certain to grow. Canada has witnessed a trend towards more extreme fire weather brought about by prolonged drought and extreme heat that leave trees and grasses dry — perfect conditions to fuel longer and more intense wildfires. If the ranks of tree planters swell to meet the federal government’s aim to plant more than two billion trees, they may be exposed to health risks arising from the very devastation they are working to prevent.
|
|
Environmental Health News – September 11, 2023
Dr. Bruce Lanphear, an expert on early childhood health and exposure to toxics discusses his resignation as the co-chair from the Health Canada scientific advisory committee on pest control products, and how regulators are failing to protect the public from agricultural pesticides. Dr. Lanphear, a professor and researcher at Simon Fraser University, also talks about why small exposures to environmental toxics have a big impact on us, and how we can better protect ourselves from pesticides exposure. Listen to the interview and learn more about Dr. Lanphear’s work at littlethingsmatter.ca.
|
|
British Journal of Cancer – September 8, 2023
Air pollution is a cause of lung cancer and is associated with bladder cancer. However, the relationship between air pollution and these cancers in regions of low pollution is unclear. The authours investigated associations between fine particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide, and black carbon, and both these cancers in a low-pollution city. A cohort of 11,679 men ≥65 years old in Perth (Western Australia) were followed from 1996–1999 until 2018. The results showed low-level ambient air pollution is associated with lung, and possibly bladder, cancer among older men, suggesting there is no known safe level for air pollution as a carcinogen.
|
|
Office of Inspector General United States (U.S.) Environmental Protection Agency – September 6, 2023
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of the Inspector General conducted an audit to determine to what extent oversight of the benzene fenceline monitoring requirements by the EPA and delegated authorities ensures that refineries take corrective action and lower benzene concentrations. From January 2019 to September 2021, 13 of the 118 refineries reviewed had benzene concentrations above the action level in 20 or more weeks after exceedance. The recommendations were that the EPA provide guidance on what constitutes a violation of the regulations and how to identify gaps in refinery-submitted data, develop a strategy to address refineries that fail to reduce their benzene concentrations after an exceedance, and ensure that monitoring plans that only rely on modeling are amended to incorporate additional monitoring.
|
|
BMC Public Health – September 5, 2023
As the global burden of chronic cancer increases, its correlation to lifestyle, socioeconomic status (SES) and health equity becomes more important. The aim of the study was to provide a snapshot of the socioeconomic and lifestyle patterns for different cancer types in patients at a Nordic tertiary cancer clinic. In a descriptive observational study, questionnaires addressed highest-attained educational level, occupational level, economy, relationship status, exposures, and lifestyle habits. The questionnaire was distributed to all cancer patients attending the cancer clinic. Treating physicians added further information about the cancer disease. The study indicated significant socioeconomic and lifestyle differences among cancer types at a Nordic cancer centre, with differences in lifestyle being more prominent than socioeconomic differences.
|
|
The European Journal of Oncology Pharmacy – September 2023
The primary objective of this study was to evaluate cytotoxic medicine contamination on surfaces in European hospital wards. The secondary objectives were to detect possible internal bodily exposure in staff members, and to evaluate the impact of teaching safe handling practices. Surface contamination in the chemotherapy administration areas was measured in 28 hospitals from 16 European countries before and after staff training through a standardized tutorial. The study shows that contamination of surfaces with cytotoxic medicines in European hospitals is a widespread phenomenon. Bodily exposure of nurses was clearly detected. Surface contamination decreased after training on safe handling practices.
|
|
Occupational Cancer Research Centre – Fall 2023
Advancing Workplace Exposure Surveillance in Canada presents the proceedings of a workshop hosted by the Occupational Cancer Research Centre in March 2023, attended by approximately 60 stakeholders and scientific collaborators from Ontario and across Canada. The report outlines the presentations on current occupational exposure surveillance initiatives given at the workshop, and summarizes the key gaps and challenges, skill and resource needs, and recommended actions to improve occupational exposure surveillance in Canada, as identified by workshop participants.
|
|
About CAREX Canada
CAREX (CARcinogen EXposure) Canada is the country’s leading source of evidence on Canadians’ exposures to workplace and environmental carcinogens. We aim to offer a better understanding of which known and suspected carcinogens Canadians are exposed to and where in Canada such exposures may occur. The ultimate goal of the project is to inform efforts to reduce these exposures and thereby help to prevent cancer. For more information about CAREX Canada resources and tools, visit www.carexcanada.ca. You can also follow us on Twitter @CAREXCanada.
|
|
|
|
|
|
