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Wood that kills
For over 300,000 workers in France, wood dust is the enemy. In fact it is the second largest cause of recognised and compensated industrial cancers. Good enough reason for it to be the subject of a conference taking place right now.
The French National Research and Safety Institute (the INRS) has organised a series of lectures which started yesterday and will run until tomorrow. Exposure evaluation, preventive action, effects on health … every aspect will be addressed in detail. Because in 2004, according to the French Health Insurance Fund (Caisse nationale d’Assurance-maladie), wood dust was the cause of 104 cases of industrial disease including 64 cancers.
What is at issue is working with wood. Sawing, sanding – without protection these can be dangerous activities. According to the INRS, “whatever the type of wood, the dust released into the air can lead to respiratory and cutaneous pathologies”. And it follows that the duration of exposure is an aggravating factor. “Repeated deposits of coarse dust in the upper respiratory tract can lead to cancer of the nasal cavities and sinuses”, states the INRS. It is interesting to note that a 1999 European Directive includes this type of dust as a “carcinogenic agent”.
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