Close to 60 workplace chemicals are listed by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as known or probable causes of human cancer. Furthermore, at least 100 workplace chemicals are suspected of being possible causes of cancer. Depending on where we work and what we do for a living, our health may be affected. We are most at risk if we are exposed to toxic chemicals in the workplace.
In this section of the web site, the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation provides you with information about sources of chemical exposure in the workplace and how they may be linked to breast cancer risk. We also share precautionary steps to protect workers’ health and safety.
Work and breast cancer risk
Breast cancer is a disease with many established risk factors, possible causes and a long latency period. Connecting the dots between the workplace, health and cancer risk is an important area of research that is made complicated by our working lives. Most of us have different jobs over our lifetime. Few of us record, or even accurately remember, possible workplace exposures, and health care providers rarely track this kind of information. .
According to workplace health research, individuals in the following occupations may have an increased risk of breast cancer:
Workers with exposure to toxic chemicals in agriculture or the manufacture of textiles, paper, microelectronics or automobiles.
Health care providers who work with ionizing radiation.
Workers with high levels of exposure to diesel exhaust, for example in heavy truck traffic areas, including border service agents.
Long-term night-shift workers whose exposure to artificial light at night may reduce their levels of a key hormone called melatonin, which is thought to play a role in suppressing or slowing down the growth of human breast tumours.
More research is needed for a better understanding of these links with the development of breast cancer and how best to protect workers’ health. . For a summary of research on environmental risks and breast cancer, see the Breast Cancer Fund’s report State of the Evidence: The Connection Between Breast Cancer and the Environment.
Precautionary steps for health and safety at work
Know your workplace health and safety rights. You have the right to know if you are exposed to workplace hazards, including chemicals; if your employer is using safer alternatives; and that you’ve been adequately trained.
Learn about the health risks of your workplace and how to protect yourself, including how to use protective equipment and clothing properly and at all times of potential exposure. Your employer should provide you with this training.
If you have concerns about your health risks or your workplace’s health and safety practices, speak to your supervisor or your Occupational Health and Safety Committee.
Ask your health care provider to keep an occupational history in your medical records and inform them of chemical exposures and health and safety practices in your workplace. Include information on any hobbies you may have that expose you to chemicals.
If you work with chemicals, you many take them into your home on your shoes or clothing. Help protect the health of others in your household by removing your shoes when you enter the home and washing your work clothes separately.
To protect the health and safety of all workers, more research is needed to identify occupational risks and the precautionary steps required by regulators and employers to keep workers safe on the job and reduce the risk of cancer, including breast cancer.
More Information
Research on chemicals and breast cancer risk
Reducing your chemical exposure: at home
Reducing your breast cancer risk
Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety
Occupational Health Clinic for Ontario Workers Inc. – for Canadian health and safety links
CAREX Canada: Surveillance of environmental and occupational exposures for cancer prevention
Sources
Brophy, J. T., et al. (2006). Occupation and Breast Cancer. A Canadian Case-Control Study. In the Annals of NY Academy of Science.
Gray, J. (Sixth Ed, 2010). State of the Evidence: The Connection Between Breast Cancer and the Environtment. Breast Cancer Fund. Accessed July 31, 2011.
Griffin, S. (2009) Environmental Exposure: The CancerSmart Guide to Breast Cancer Prevention. Toxic Free Canada.
Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers Inc. (2001). Preventing Occupational and Environmental Cancer. Accessed July 31, 2011.
Reuben, S. H. for the President’s Cancer Panel. (April 2010). Reducing Environmental Risk. What We Can Do Now. U.S. Department of Health and Human Service, National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute. Accessed July 31, 2011.
Straif, K. et al, on behalf of the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer Monograph Working Group. (December 2007). Carcinogenicity of shift-work, painting and fire-fighting. In The Lancet Oncology, Vol. 8, No. 12, pp. 1065-1066. Accessed July 31, 2011.
Tillett T. (2006). Headliners: Breast Cancer: Decreased Melatonin Production Linked to Light Exposure. In Environmental Health Perspectives Vol 114, No. 2. Accessed July 31, 2011.