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Workplace Health

Women make up nearly half the workforce in the United States. Despite hundreds of studies linking some occupations to breast cancer risk, we do not know enough about specific causes or how to protect women in the workplace.

Stronger policies to limit workplace exposures are needed to sustain a healthy workforce. In the meantime, people can take steps to create safer workplaces.

Science summary

Some occupations are linked to increased breast cancer risk. Specific on-the-job exposures, such as ionizing radiation, night-shift work (aka light-at-night) or solvents, may increase risk.

Some studies have looked at exposures in work settings and found the following workplace chemical exposures are linked to increased breast cancer risk: benzene, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), ethylene oxide, pesticides, and tobacco smoke.
Publications: work & breast cancer 

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There is general consensus in the scientific literature that the following occupations are linked to modest increases in breast cancer risk: professional jobs in management, administration, and social services; nursing, work as a radiological technician; educational jobs as teachers and librarians; and work with solvents. 

While the research findings on other occupations are less consistent, some studies suggest considerably higher breast cancer risk among food and beverage production workers, hairdressers and cosmetologists, manufacturing and machinery workers, doctors, physicians and other medical workers excluding nurses, dry cleaning and laundry workers. Some studies suggest these occupations have between a 3-5 times higher risk of breast cancer. 

Tips

Should you be concerned about increased risks for breast cancer in the workplace? Jobs across all sectors expose people to hazardous chemicals and radiation at work.
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What’s happening in policy

BCPP advocates for laws and regulations that protect people from unsafe chemical exposures in the workplace. Recent examples:

  • Three BCPP co-sponsored bills were signed by California Gov. Newsom on September 30, 2020:
    • California Senate Bill 1044 (authored by Senator Ben Allen (Santa Monica), will ban the manufacture, sale and use of firefighting foam that contains chemicals known as per-and poly-fluoralkyl substances, or PFAS.
    • California Senate Bill 312 the Cosmetic Fragrance and Flavor Ingredient Right to Know Act of 2020 (authored by Senator Connie Leyva of Chino) makes California the first government in the world to require the public disclosure of hazardous fragrance and flavor ingredients in cosmetic products sold in the state.
    • California Assembly Bill 2762 the Toxic-Free Cosmetics Act (authored by Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi of Los Angeles) is the nation’s first state-level ban of 24 toxic ingredients, including mercury and formaldehyde, from the beauty and personal care products used by California consumers and professional salon workers.
  • BCPP sponsored the 2018 California Salon Product Ingredient Disclosure Bill (AB 2775) which requires the ingredients in professional salon products sold in California to be listed on the product label. This law went into effect on July 1, 2020.
  • We sponsored the Cleaning Product Right to Know Act of 2017 (SB 258) which requires disclosure of the ingredients in cleaning products.
  • We provide communication, education and policy support and expertise for the Women Workers Biomonitoring Collaborative (WWBC), and its Women Firefighters Biomonitoring Collaborative (WFBC) study.
  • In addition, we are working to ensure that the EPA implementation of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reform law protects workers.

BCPP also works to secure more funding for the California Safe Cosmetics Program, a critical worker and consumer right-to-know program that reports on the presence of chemicals linked to cancer or birth defects in beauty and personal care products.

Firefighters

High rates of many cancers among firefighters has motivated fire departments and their unions to change departmental policies in order to reduce firefighter exposures to carcinogens and other chemicals. Firefighters are exposed to chemicals every day in fires, fire stations, and firefighting equipment. BCPP works closely with the Women Firefighters Biomonitoring Collaborative, a study monitoring women firefighters in the San Francisco Bay Area to learn whether this population is being exposed to chemicals that have been linked in scientific studies to breast tumors. Read More

Partners

Check out our partners in workplace health.

Our Partners
Blue-Green Alliance, Commonweal, Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, San Francisco Firefighter Cancer Prevention Foundation, Southern California Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health, United Fire Service Women, United Steel Workers, University of California Berkeley, University of California San Francisco, Women Workers Biomonitoring Collaborative, Worksafe
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BCPP: Exposing the Cause is the Cure

We're preventing breast cancer before it starts by eliminating our exposure to toxic chemicals and radiation.

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