An Australian national broadcaster announced yesterday it will abandon its offices in Brisbane after an investigation revealed an extraordinarily high rate of breast cancer among staff.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) ordered the five-month investigation by an independent panel of experts after almost 100 staffers went on strike in July to demand a relocation.
The premises in Brisbane that house the ABC newsroom, studios and offices were widely blamed for 12 women staffers being diagnosed with breast cancer in the past 11 years.
Eight of the women worked in the newsroom, and most had been there for more than five years.
The study showed women among the staff of 250 who work in the Brisbane premises reported breast cancer at a rate up to 11 times higher than the general work force.
ABC managing director Mark Scott said this was an "unusually high incidence," but the panel was unable to explain any link to the work environment or technology in use at the site in Brisbane's inner west.
"The panel has been able to answer one of the two key questions we put to it -- namely, is this a significant atypical spike in the incidence of breast cancer?" Scott said in a statement released after briefing staff today.
"The answer to that question is yes, which is of great concern to the ABC," he added.
The panel, headed by Sydney University public health professor Bruce Armstrong, was unable to answer the second question regarding the cause.
Scott said the relocation would begin with the newsroom yesterday and was expected to be completed by the end of next month.
Staff would be offered free mammograms and counseling during the relocation process.
The ABC would also commission a study of the incidence of breast cancer among staff at other sites around Australia in an effort to find out the cause.
TIT-FOR-TAT: The arrest of Filipinos that Manila said were in China as part of a scholarship program follows the Philippines’ detention of at least a dozen Chinese The Philippines yesterday expressed alarm over the arrest of three Filipinos in China on suspicion of espionage, saying they were ordinary citizens and the arrests could be retaliation for Manila’s crackdown against alleged Chinese spies. Chinese authorities arrested the Filipinos and accused them of working for the Philippine National Security Council to gather classified information on its military, the state-run China Daily reported earlier this week, citing state security officials. It said the three had confessed to the crime. The National Security Council disputed Beijing’s accusations, saying the three were former recipients of a government scholarship program created under an agreement between the
Sitting around a wrestling ring, churchgoers roared as local hero Billy O’Keeffe body-slammed a fighter named Disciple. Beneath stained-glass windows, they whooped and cheered as burly, tattooed wresters tumbled into the aisle during a six-man tag-team battle. This is Wrestling Church, which brings blood, sweat and tears — mostly sweat — to St Peter’s Anglican church in the northern England town of Shipley. It is the creation of Gareth Thompson, a charismatic 37-year-old who said he was saved by pro wrestling and Jesus — and wants others to have the same experience. The outsized characters and scripted morality battles of pro wrestling fit
SUSPICION: Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing returned to protests after attending a summit at which he promised to hold ‘free and fair’ elections, which critics derided as a sham The death toll from a major earthquake in Myanmar has risen to more than 3,300, state media said yesterday, as the UN aid chief made a renewed call for the world to help the disaster-struck nation. The quake on Friday last week flattened buildings and destroyed infrastructure across the country, resulting in 3,354 deaths and 4,508 people injured, with 220 others missing, new figures published by state media showed. More than one week after the disaster, many people in the country are still without shelter, either forced to sleep outdoors because their homes were destroyed or wary of further collapses. A UN estimate
Australia’s opposition party yesterday withdrew election promises to prevent public servants from working from home and to slash more than one in five federal public-sector jobs. Opposition leader Peter Dutton announced his conservative Liberal Party had dropped its pledge that public servants would be required to work in their offices five days a week except in exceptional circumstances. “I think we made a mistake in relation to this policy,” Dutton told Nine Network television. “I think it’s important that we say that and recognize it, and our intention was to make sure that where taxpayers are working hard and their money is
RSS