The cost of occupational cancer in Spain is 88 million euros

Occupational accidents and work-related diseases are a significant morbidity and mortality in the population. During the last decades in Europe and Spain have been implemented measures to control occupational exposures and this have caused a decrease in mortality associated with occupational exposures. However, diseases caused by exposures in workplace still produce a high cost for workers, employers and society. Specifically, according to Montse Garcia-Gomez from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health at Work (INSHT), estimates that the direct costs of lung and bladder cancer with an occupational origin may be estimated at 88 million Euros per year for diagnosis and treatment

Bladder cancer, which is one of the main tumors attributable to occupational exposures, is really important in the context of the epidemiology of occupational cancer, as most cumulative incidence of any cancer is that the bladder cancer in workers from coloring industry.

Based on assessments by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), there are 400 chemical or physics agents that can be considered as carcinogens and 150 occur in workplace. In addition, 18 occupations or industries are associated with an increased risk of cancer among workers. In industrialized countries, about a quarter of all functions are due to cancer. Tumors more often associated with occupational exposures are lung, bladder, nasal cavity, liver, among others.. Also described an association between industrial exposures and other cancers, such as pancreatic, brain, larynx, prostate, colon, kidney, and others, but the evidence is not so clear.

* Summary of Manolis Kogevinas editorial published in the last edition Spanish Journal of Public Health.