L.G. Solyonova, S.V. Beyakova, V.B. Smulevich
Laboratory of Occupational Cancer
National Scientific Cancer Center
Moscow 115478 Kashirskoye shosse 24
RUSSIA
TEL: (095) 323-5944
The employment of women in some hazardous and carcinogenic industrial processes is a most important social and medical problem. Unfavorable job conditions result both in the increased cancer risk in females and the impairment of their reproductive health.
According to official statistics, in the former Soviet Union in 1989 more than sixty five million women (half of all employees) worked in various branches of the national economy. The female workers comprise 44% of all the personnel working under heavy and hazardous conditions in industry in the whole. In some branches of the economy (petroleum industry, coal, gas, chemical and petrochemical, oil-refining industry, ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy) engagement of women in heavy and hazardous occupations has reached 71-87%. In our estimates, 1,820,391 women are permanently exposed to carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The majority of female workers employed in industry are at reproductive age (25-45 years old).
The impact of parental occupation on cancer risk in children is being studied by the Laboratory of Occupational Cancer, all-Russia Cancer Research Center. Preliminary analysis showed increased cancer risk in children whose parents were exposed to some hazard occupational factors (chemical compounds, electromagnetic fields, ionizing radiation, work with displays, etc.). A combination of these factors with chronic diseases of parents and alcohol abuse significantly increase cancer risk in children.
Translated by Natalia Mirovitskaya
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