WHO Reports that Workplace Cancer Kills 200,000 per Year
On April 27, 2007 Reuters published an article stating that according to WHO (the World Health Organization) at least 200,000 people die every year from cancers related to their workplaces, mainly from inhaling asbestos fibers and second-hand tobacco smoke.
The World Health Organization is a United Nations agency, and further stated that every 10th lung cancer death is related to occupational hazards, and about 125 million people worldwide are exposed to asbestos at work, leading to at least 90,000 deaths each year.
(It’s hard to believe, but very true. This is 2007, but asbestos has not been banned and is still in use here in Texas.)
The report goes on to say thousands more die each year because of leukemia from workplace exposure to benzene.
Ms. Maria Neira, WHO director of public health and environment said in a statement recently released in Geneva, “Known and preventable exposures are clearly responsible for hundreds of thousands of excess cancer cases each year.”