Jakarta, policies relating to safety should not only include things that are short and look good on the surface. Research shows several types of jobs at risk of causing cancer, even thousands of suspected cases of cancer each year are caused by work.
Unfortunately, experts say not enough can be done to reduce this risk. In an article in the Medical Journal of Australia, Professor Lin Fritschi and colleagues assert that it is difficult to estimate the exact number of cancer cases are associated with the job.
"It is estimated there are about 5000 cases of cancer each year are caused by work. Work that lead to cancer of public and media attention, but received limited attention from researchers and policy makers, especially when compared to other carcinogens such as tobacco use and exposure to sunlight, "Professor Fritschi said as quoted by the official website of the Australian Medical Association, AMA.com, Monday (2/20/2012) ..
In addition to hard to estimate how many for sure, the incidence of cancer because the work is not easily identified. This cancer is characterized by disease or clinical condition that is unique. Moreover, the lag time between exposure and diagnosis of cancer causes of cancer can be decades away.
Professor Fritschi appointed one of his research in 2011 which was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology. He found that employees who spend 10 years or more in a job that requires you to sit all day at risk of developing colon cancer twice. These employees also have an increased risk of rectal cancer by 44%.
Another study conducted in 2009 Professor Fritschi and published by the British Medical Journal show the influence of shift work on cancer, especially breast cancer. He stated that the shift of work that interferes with the biological clock can cause cancer. Breast cancer risk increased by about 50% in night workers and about 70% on airline employees.
"To give priority to preventive measures, it is important to collect data on the number of workers in Australia are exposed to carcinogens, what he does, also how the concentration and frequency of exposure," added Professor Fritschi.
According to Professor Fritschi, general practitioners and other physicians need to know how to analyze employment history as a whole and improve the ability to identify cancer due to compensation for the work can be followed up with a legitimate case.
In 1980, the National Health Organization (WHO) and the Medical Research Council (NHMRC) in Australia passed a law to regulate carcinogenic substance and form a national safety committee or the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission (NOHSC).
Several other developed countries have also formulated a similar policy. However, this policy seems it is still not much help to reduce the number of cancer cases caused by work.
