More People Exposed To Risk Of Cancer, Mental Illness

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 27 (Bernama) -- Studies done locally and abroad have shown that more people will be exposed to the risk of cancer and mental illness in the future, Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri Dr Fong Chan Onn said Monday.
Among the main causes were unhealthy lifestyle, stress at work and exposure to toxic materials due to increased industrialisation, he told reporters here.
He said that last year, 4,750 or 25 per cent of 19,000 applicants for Social Security Organisation (Socso) benefits were found to have cancer by its panel of doctors while 950 applicants (five per cent) suffered from mental illness.
In view of this, the ministry would launch a healthy lifestyle awareness campaign in collaboration with the Health Ministry to educate workers on the dangers of cancer and other work-related illnesses, he said.
"We've got awareness campaigns like those on road accidents and now we're looking for a healthy lifestyle awareness campaign on how we can alert workers on how to reduce the cause of the cancer. The workers are also coping with stress due to the working environment," he said.
Earlier, Dr Fong launched the second edition of "Guidelines On Impairment and Disability Assessment of Traumatic Injuries, Occupational Diseases and Invalidity", published by Socso's Medical and Rehabilitation branch.