{
  "abstract": "Objective The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) carried out an exposure survey to cancer risks factors, based on an adaptation of the Australian Workplace Exposures Study (AWES). The survey provides prevalence and semi-quantitative levels of occupational exposure, assessed with the Occupational Integrated Database Exposure Assessment System (OccIDEAS).Material and Methods The survey was held with 24,402 respondents in six European countries. Almost 62% of the respondents were male workers, and 38% female. The unbalanced distribution by gender may be due to some extent to a limitation of the survey: many of the 24 cancer risk factors addressed by the survey are mainly relevant to male-dominated industrial jobs and sectors.Nevertheless, the survey data was weighted with the 2021 EU Labour Force Survey annual data as reference statistics, considering gender, to represent the working population of the six countries, namely 98.5 million workers.Results Male workers are exposed more often than female workers to at least one cancer risk factor, to several of them, and to most of the single risk factors, with the exception of ionising radiation, ethylene oxide, acrylamide, o-toluidine, epichlorohydrin and leather dust, which are similar for both genders, but concerning fewer workers. The same applies to exposure at higher levels, except for ethylene oxide and trichloroethylene.When looking at specific sectors or occupations, there are some exceptions. For example, 48% of the female workers exposed to formaldehyde in the healthcare sector are exposed at a high level, compared to 31% of the male workers.Conclusion Although the Workers’ Exposure Survey is not addressing a possible gender bias, it contributes to increasing awareness of some very relevant risk factors for female workers, such as formaldehyde, a wide-used chemical present in many applications and products in EU workplaces.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Work Prevention and Research Unit, European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA)"
      ],
      "name": "Marine Cavet"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Work Prevention and Research Unit, European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA)"
      ],
      "name": "Xabier Irastorza"
    }
  ],
  "title": "8274387 The workers’ exposure survey on cancer risk factors in Europe – a gender perspective",
  "uid": "8d554942-2c26-51bd-abc0-837468bfd5fb"
}