IMF Spearheads Global Campaign on Occupational Cancer

The International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) is heading a global union campaign to draw attention to occupational cancer, the most common work-related cause of death. Titled “Occupational Cancer/Zero Cancer,” the campaign is endorsed by all Global Union Federations, as well as the ITUC, and contains materials and useful information for preventing cancer in the workplace.

Those materials, and background information, can be found at www.imfmetal.org/cancer.

An IMF cancer prevention guide, for instance, states that an occupational cancer death occurs once every 52 seconds. The IMF maintains that one in ten cancer cases can be prevented because that percentage, at the very least, is due to predictable workplace exposure.

“Asbestos alone accounts for an estimated 100,000 deaths each year and yet there is not a worldwide ban on its use,” said IMF Gen. Sec. Marcello Malentacchi. The IMF says too little attention is given to preventing workplace hazards by employers and government regulators, and Malentacchi points to the fact that “only a small minority of countries have signed up to the ILO conventions on occupational cancer and asbestos.”