Documents Cherrie, John W. 15 results

"Background
Occupational exposure to solar ultraviolet (UV) is known to cause malignant melanoma (MM) and non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC). However, knowledge of the causal associations has developed erratically.
Aims
This review aims to identify when it was accepted that workplace solar UV exposure could cause skin cancer and when it was recognized that there was a risk for outdoor workers in Britain, identifying the steps employers should have taken to protect their workers.
Methods
Informative reviews, published since 1974, were located through a systematic literature search. These were used to chart changes in summative knowledge of the role of occupational solar UV exposure in causing skin cancer. An assessment was made of the identified hazards of skin cancer and the recognition of risks for outdoor workers in Britain.
Results
From at least 1975, it has been accepted that occupational solar UV exposure could cause squamous cell carcinoma, and from around 2011 for MM and basal cell carcinoma. From 2004, repeated sunburn at work was identified as a likely cause of MM. From 1999, it was accepted that occupational solar UV exposure causes NMSC amongst British workers, and from 2012 there was limited evidence for an MM risk for outdoor workers in northern European countries.
Conclusions
Skin cancer risks for British outdoor workers should be actively managed and they should have health surveillance. Outdoor workers who have skin cancer should be eligible for compensation."

This article is available under the Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND license and permits non-commercial use of the work as published, without adaptation or alteration provided the work is fully attributed.

"From 1 July 2024, Australia has banned the use, supply and manufacture of engineered stone, also known as artificial stone, which is made from crystalline silica-containing aggregates bonded with a polymer resin. Engineered stone is defined as an artificial product containing at least 1% crystalline silica on a weight basis. This far-reaching policy is the first of its kind in the world and is similar to the bans on the use of asbestos and asbestos products that are in place in many countries worldwide (currently 70 countries). ..."

"Over the past decade, the primary focus of nanotoxicology and nanoenvironmental health and safety efforts has been largely on inhalation exposure to engineered nanomaterials, at the production stage, and much less on considering risks along the life cycle of nano-enabled products. Dermal exposure to nanomaterials and its health impact has been studied to a much lesser extent, and mostly in the context of intentional exposure to nano-enabled products such as in nanomedicine, cosmetics and personal care products. How concerning is dermal exposure to such nanoparticles in the context of occupational exposures? When and how should we measure it?

In the first of a series of two papers (Larese Filon et al., 2016), we focused our attention on identifying conditions or situations, i.e. a combination of nanoparticle physico-chemical properties, skin barrier integrity, and occupations with high prevalence of skin disease, which deserve further investigation. This second paper focuses on the broad question of dermal exposure assessment to nanoparticles and attempts to give an overview of the mechanisms of occupational dermal exposure to nanoparticles and nano-enabled products and explores feasibility and adequacy of various methods of quantifying dermal exposure to NOAA. We provide here a conceptual framework for screening, prioritization, and assessment of dermal exposure to NOAA in occupational settings, and integrate it into a proposed framework for risk assessment."

"The paper reviews and critically assesses the evidence on the relevance of various skin uptake pathways for engineered nanoparticles, nano-objects, their agglomerates and aggregates (NOAA). It focuses especially in occupational settings, in the context of nanotoxicology, risk assessment, occupational medicine, medical/epidemiological surveillance efforts, and the development of relevant exposure assessment strategies.
Skin uptake of nanoparticles is presented in the context of local and systemic health effects, especially contact dermatitis, skin barrier integrity, physico-chemical properties of NOAA, and predisposing risk factors, such as stratum corneum disruption due to occupational co-exposure to chemicals, and the presence of occupational skin diseases. Attention should be given to: (1) Metal NOAA, since the potential release of ions may induce local skin effects (e.g. irritation and contact dermatitis) and absorption of toxic or sensitizing metals; (2) NOAA with metal catalytic residue, since potential release of ions may also induce local skin effects and absorption of toxic metals; (3) rigid NOAA smaller than 45 nm that can penetrate and permeate the skin; (4) non rigid or flexible NOAA, where due to their flexibility liposomes and micelles can penetrate and permeate the intact skin; (5) impaired skin condition of exposed workers.
Furthermore, we outline possible situations where health surveillance could be appropriate where there is NOAA occupational skin exposures, e.g. when working with nanoparticles made of sensitizer metals, NOAA containing sensitizer impurities, and/or in occupations with a high prevalence of disrupted skin barrier integrity. The paper furthermore recommends a stepwise approach to evaluate risk related to NOAA to be applied in occupational exposure and risk assessment, and discusses implications related to health surveillance, labelling, and risk communication."

"Diesel engine exhaust is a complex mixture of particles and gasses. If you work around diesel engines you can see and smell the exhaust and so it is immediately apparent when you are exposed to these high concentrations. However, the exhaust emissions disperse into the surrounding air and are no longer easily detected, but this does not mean that there is no risk; low levels of diesel engine exhaust can still increase your risk for cancer and other serious diseases."

"The aim of this project was to produce an updated estimate of the current burden of occupational cancer specifically for Great Britain. The primary measure of the burden of cancer used in this project was the attributable fraction (AF) i.e. the proportion of cases that would not have occurred in the absence of exposure; this was then used to estimate the attributable numbers. This involved obtaining data on the risk of the disease due to the exposure of interest, taking into account confounding factors and overlapping exposures, and the proportion of the target population exposed over the period in which relevant exposure occurred. Estimation was carried out for occupational exposures classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as group 1 (established) and 2A carcinogens (probable).
This project is the first to quantify in detail the burden of cancer due to occupation specifically for GB. There are several sources of uncertainty in the estimates, including exclusion of other potential carcinogenic agents, inaccurate or approximate data and methodological issues. On balance, the estimates are likely to be a conservative estimate of the total attributable burden. Forthcoming reports will present the results for; estimates of Disability-Adjusted Life Years; methods to predict future estimates of the occupational cancers with examples based on important hazards; and the results of sensitivity analysis of these estimates to sources of uncertainty and bias."