par Vogel, Laurent ;Musu, Tony; [et al.]
Référence Ed. 1
Publication Publié, 2016-04-20
Ouvrage en collaboration
Résumé : Every year, more than 100 000 people die from the consequences of a cancer caused by exposure at work (Takala, 2015). All of these cases are avoidable.Occupational cancers could be eliminated by alternative means of production, by a systematic implementation of preventative measures and by an organisation of work that accommodates these requirements.The majority of these cancers are caused by exposure to chemical substances.The available data on the current levels of exposure for workers confirms that in the absence of adequate legislation there can be no significant improvement of the situation.The fact is cancer costs practically nothing to the companies that cause it.Instead the costs fall to the victims, to social security provisions and to public health systems. Without strict regulation, no prevention measures can have a serious impact across the sectors. The present European legislation concerning the prevention of workplace cancers has to be profoundly reformed. Currently, its purview is far too narrow; the number of substances for which limit values are defined constitute less than 20% of the situations where workers are actually exposed. Furthermore, the legislation does not provide for continued health monitoring after the period of exposure.Further regulations need to be imposed to reduce the amount of commercially produced carcinogenic substances available on the market. For this purpose, the European regulation on chemicals (REACH) must function far more effectively, in particular by substantially increasing the number of carcinogenic substances covered by the authorisation procedure. Moreover, considering the pressure received from industry lobbyists during its development, the specific legislation related to pesticides and cosmetics needs to be reviewed.This publication presents a critical appraisal of the principal EU legislation adopted so far. In so doing, it identifies significant gaps in the central feature of this legislation, which is the directive concerning the protection of workers against carcinogens.