Skip to main content
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. 

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
A pharmacy sign shows in Bordeaux, southwestern France, June 23, 2026
Climate / 30 June 2026
30 June 2026

Extreme heat is now one of the defining public health challenges of a warming world, explains Prof IAN WILLIAMS

men
Books / 26 February 2026
26 February 2026

SUE TURNER is fascinated by a book that researches who the largely immigrant workforce were that built the Empire State

Train drivers from the Aslef union on the picket line at Euston station in London, as they are launching a wave of fresh walkouts in a long-running dispute over pay. Train drivers at 16 rail companies are holding a rolling programme of one-day walkouts between April 5 and 8, coupled with a six-day ban on overtime. Picture date: Friday April 5, 2024
TUC Congress 2025 / 8 September 2025
8 September 2025

On the eve of the 157th Trades Union Congress, MICK WHELAN, general secretary of Aslef, the train drivers’ union, celebrates victory in his campaign to get dignity for drivers at work