French Survey Focuses on Carcinogen Risks to Workers

In an effort to reduce the exposure for French workers to carcinogens and biological agents, health officials recently presented and discussed a 2010 health survey.

In September, the results of the 2010 SUMER survey were presented, with presentations zeroing in on trends over the nearly 20 years since the first survey in 1994, psychosocial and organizational risks, exposure to carcinogens and biological agents and the occupational physician´s perception of OSH organization at enterprise level.

Some findings highlighted:

Job control decreasing, while work intensification increases, more workers on job strain
Contacts with the public on the increase in almost all professions, but third-party violence and intimidation on the decrease
Increase in noise exposure
Manual handling increased among blue-collar workers
Repetitive and constrained postures on the increase
Increase in driving for work
Women more exposed to biological agents, and exposures overall on the increase
Hostility between workers on the increase
Young people and workers in service sectors are particularly exposed to physically stressful conditions
Young people and maintenance workers are particularly exposed to carcinogens
Workers under high physical and organizational strain also have more accidents (twice as many) and more absences > 5 days
High exposures to physical and chemical risks in public service
High exposures to chemicals in SME
As regards prevention at enterprise level, organizational measures are often not taken, but PPE prevails, especially in SME

The presence of a health and safety committee, worker representation, risk assessment and its documentation and a prevention plan improve prevention of physical risks at enterprise level, but work organization is hardly affected by these.

Author Michael B. Stack, CPA, Director of Operations, Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. is an expert in employer communication systems and part of the Amaxx team helping companies reduce their workers compensation costs by 20% to 50%. He is a writer, speaker, and website publisher. www.reduceyourworkerscomp.com. Contact: mstack@reduceyourworkerscomp.com.