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Welding fumes and the danger of cancer
TONY BURKE reports on the new initiative to raise awareness among welders, GPs and employers
A welder at work in Bosch Thermotechnology in Clay Cross, Chesterfield in 2018

ENGINEERING and shipbuilding workers are being urged to get checked for cancer, notably those workers who work — or worked — as welders.

Welding fumes are shown to cause cancers — and the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions (CSEU), along with the Alex Ferry Foundation, a charity linked to the CSEU, has launched the Breathe Safe campaign to raise awareness.

The campaign was launched on June 23 in Glasgow, with CSEU general secretary Ian Waddell saying: “We believe that the numbers of welders diagnosed with these conditions is the tip of the iceberg. 

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