"If the reports are not made, we will never have statistics on occupational oncological disease in Portugal. It is essential to raise awareness in the entire clinical community so that, whenever they deal with an oncological patient, they remember to ask and stratify the occupational exposure risks that those workers are currently facing or have faced", said António Jorge Ferreira.

The pulmonologist and university professor, who is a specialist in Occupational Medicine, was speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the 2nd National Congress on Epidemiology and Cancer Registry, which is taking place today and Friday at the Portuguese Institute of Oncology in Porto.

In his presentation, António Jorge Ferreira asked doctors, regardless of their specialty, to report suspected occupational diseases to the Department of Protection Against Occupational Risks.

"We often ask about diet, whether or not they smoke, and their profession. We limit ourselves to asking about their profession. And if the patient even says 'I'm retired', we stop there. And that can't be (...). Sometimes we also hear that 'that's for the occupational doctor' and it's not. It's for all doctors", he said, giving an example related to his specialty.

"As a pulmonologist, if I see that a patient of mine has lung cancer and I know that they worked with silica for a large part of their life, why not report it as occupational cancer? The worker will be seen by a board of pulmonologists who will, or will not, apply a causal link".

António Jorge Ferreira, who is a professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra, where he coordinates the Master's Degree in Occupational Health and the postgraduate course in Occupational Medicine, expressed his concern about "the underreporting of occupational oncological disease in Portugal".

"We have data extrapolation for Europe, but since the institutions that statistically treat occupational diseases are different from those that treat occupational accident statistics, we often do not have a global perception of the data (...). There will be more cases than those that are registered", he said.

In Portugal, occupational accidents are handled by the Studies and Planning Office of the Ministry of Labour, while cases of occupational disease belong to the Social Security Institute.

Citing Eurostat data, but immediately stating that he believes the official figures are lower than the reality, António Jorge Ferreira said that between 2013 and 2021, 33,712 cases of occupational cancers were officially recognised in the European Union.

At the top of the types of cancer with malignant neoplasm of occupational origin are the trachea, bronchi and lungs.

"But look at this footnote 'aggregated data from the European Union that does not include Germany, Greece and Portugal' and the justification is 'because the data is not available'. This raises many concerns'", he said.

Asked, on the sidelines, about the reason for this difficulty, the professor said that in Portugal "a lot of data is covered by statistical secrecy and others are being requested, but they are very small".

"I believe there are more. The number of cases they give us is very small", he concluded.

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work has identified 24 risk factors in the workplace that can lead to the disease, including industrial chemicals, substances and mixtures generated by processes, along with physical risk factors.

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