CBC News has published an interactive database on carcinogens in the workplace developed with the students and faculty at the School of Journalism.
The collaboration is designed to help Canadians understand their potential exposure to chemicals that cause cancer. Using the database, people can find out about the risk of exposure to carcinogens by career or chemical.
Two journalism students, Aleksandra Sagan and Sam Eifling, worked as researchers with CBC to help create the database.
Journalism school professors Candis Callison and Alfred Hermida were involved with the project, together with Anne-Marie Nicol, an assistant professor in the UBC School of Population and Public Health. She is also the executive director of CAREX Canada, a research initiative cataloguing Canadians’ exposure to carcinogens while on the job.
The database has 16 known carcinogens present in Canadian workplaces. Each listed substance has been recognised to be a known carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
Using data from CAREX, the interactive shows how many workers in Canada are potentially in contact with the cancer-causing agents.
