Cancer In The Workplace: Water Pollution Poses A Threat To Workers And The Community.

Cancer In The Workplace: Water Pollution Poses A Threat To Workers And The Community.
This is the second in our series on how workplace health and safety can elevate cancer risks, and how to control potential problems. This article focuses on water pollution.
– by Isaac Rudik

For years, industries facing the problem of exposing workers to high levels of benzene have been doing a lot to prevent inhalation. For example, the problem is a serious risk to coke oven workers in the steel industry, printers, rubber workers, shoe makers, laboratory technicians, firefighters and gas station employees and a massive effort was needed to reduce the risk of contamination.

But benzene poses risks in other ways, as well, and companies need to begin looking at preventing the compound from contaminating water, a common way for benzene to spread the risk of cancer beyond the factory walls.

Benzene enters the local water supply through rain, snow, the air and even humidity. Ironically, taking a shower after work allows benzene contamination to hit local water supplies. Scientists say this is even more dangerous than “working protected” with benzene because the shower mist is both easily inhaled in workers –penetrating the lungs deeply – before running off in drain water and entering a community water supply cycle.

Massive Legal Exposure

Benzene water and soil contamination are serious concerns.

In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency reports that there are more than 100,000 sites across the country dealing with some type of benzene soil or groundwater contamination as a result of industrial seepage. Proportionately, the problem is believed to be about as great in Canada.

Ingesting Benzene shows up in a number of serious effects, including vomiting, nausea, stomach irritation, sleepiness, dizziness, convulsions and even death.

Companies dealing with benzene or benzene-laden materials not only must ensure the safety of their employees, they have a proactive legal responsibility to ensure that the community’s water supply is kept safe from contamination. Failing to take adequate steps is considered negligence, resulting in enormous provincial fines as well as liability in personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits. The potential legal exposure is massive and the ensuing bad publicity can be even more damaging to a business.

Pounds Of Prevention

Controlling benzene contamination in the workplace and the surrounding community can be a complex problem. Unlike, say, a powdered carcinogen that can be confined to a small area that is readily isolated, benzene can escape into the atmosphere just by a window being open on a muggy day or the shower drain in an employee locker room.

Still, there are ways to minimize and even eliminate the risks:
· Install a self-contained treatment filter to capture drain water from showers and wash basins, removing benzene from water before it re-enters a community’s treatment and supply system.
· Contain benzene and other liquid carcinogens that generate aerosols in a suitable containment device such as a fume hood.
· Capture vapours or aerosols produced by analytical instruments through local exhaust ventilation at the production site in a Class I biological safety cabinet.

Some of this is simply common-sense, some is already required by law and some – such as installing osmosis water treatment at the plant site – is under serious consideration by regulators. An audit of a workplace where there might be a benzene risk will reveal ways to minimize the risk.




Isaac Rudik is a compliance consultant with Compliance Solutions Canada Inc. , Canada’s largest provider of health, safety and environmental compliance solutions to industrial, institutional and government facilities.

E-mail Isaac at irudik@csc-inc.ca or phone him at 905-761-5354.