Cancer investigation at semiconductor factory in Greenock
Date: 25 July 2010The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and IOM have jointly carried out a study to investigate potential cancer risks among the workers of a semiconductor factory in Greenock. The results were presented to the workforce and published by HSE on 24 August, amid considerable media interest. The overall conclusion from the new research was that it did not support earlier concerns about a possible link between working at the factory and developing cancer.
The new research updated an earlier study of the same workforce (reported by HSE in 2001), and also looked particularly at the work done by women with lung, breast and stomach cancer and men with brain cancer. It found that the number of employees with cancer was within the range expected for a workforce of a similar age and background. This was also true for each of the individual types of cancer studied.
The research failed to find any notable differences between the work done by women with breast cancer and their colleagues. It did not produce any important new results concerning work done by people with lung, stomach or brain cancer.
The IOM team, led by our Principal Epidemiologist Dr Brian Miller, helped design the study, carried out survey interviews with study subjects, performed the statistical analyses of that survey and co-wrote the reports.
The detailed final report and supporting documents are available for download from the HSE website