Women's Occupations & Risk from Chemicals

Spotlighting Chemical Exposures Faced by Working Women in California

Women – particularly women of color – have been vastly underrepresented in research about the risks of cancer for working people.

The California Department of Public Health and University of California, San Francisco, with support from the California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP), are researching chemical exposures faced by the Golden State’s working women to better understand hazards they face and ways to protect them.

The research aims to provide California's working women with access to information about breast cancer risks they may face from chemicals in the workplace.

Resources

• Exploring Chemical Exposure for California's Women Workers - CBCRP interactive tool to visualize data by occupation, ethnicity/race, and age
• Spotlighting Chemical Exposures Faced by Working Women in California (PDF) - fact sheet
• What Chemical Exposures Do Black Women Face in California Workplaces? (PDF) - fact sheet

Advisory Committee

Janette Robinson Flint - Black Women for Wellness

Lisa Fu and Catherine Porter - California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative and ​Asian Health Services

Laura Stock - Labor Occupational Health Program, University of California, Berkeley

Mila Thomas (formerly of) - SEIU - Service Employees International Union, Local 1021

Gail Bateson (formerly of) - Worksafe, Inc.

Additional Resources

Information About Working Women

Breast Cancer and Occupation: The Need for Action - American Public Health Association Policy Statement

Working Women and Breast Cancer Report - Breast Cancer Prevention Partners

National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) for Cancer, Reproductive, Cardiovascular, and Other Chronic Disease Prevention - National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)

Data Available on Chemicals of Concern

Mammary Carcinogens Review Database - Silent Spring Institute

Searchable Database - The Endocrine Disruption Exchange

ChemView Database - More information about HPV chemicals from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Chemical Exposure Health Data - OSHA database of chemicals sampled in U.S. workplaces

This research is funded by the California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP).