Global Prevention of Environmental and Occupational Cancer

doi:10.1289/ehp.1103871 Cancer has become the second leading cause of death worldwide (Ferlay et al. 2008). Almost 13 million persons are diagnosed each year with cancer, and 7.6 million die (Ferlay et al. 2010). Today more than half of all cancers and 63 % of cancer deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), a burden that is expected to grow in future years as the “Western lifestyle ” spreads and the number of persons in LMICs who live to old age continues to increase (Ferlay et al. 2010). Toxic exposures in the environment, including workplace exposures, are responsible for a substantial percentage of all cancers (Danaei et al. 2005 Christiani 2011). Precise apportionment is not possible because of gaps in the exposure data, interactions between environmental and lifestyle carcinogens, and differences from country to country in exposure patterns (Prüss-Üstün and Corvalán 2006)