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.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) launched a week-long diplomatic blitz of South America on Thursday by inaugurating a massive deep-water port in Peru, a US$1.3 billion investment by Beijing as it seeks to expand trade and influence on the continent. With China’s demand for agricultural goods and metals from Latin America growing, Xi will participate in the APEC summit in Lima then head to the Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro next week, where he will also make a state visit to Brazil. Xi and Peruvian President Dina Boluarte participated on Thursday by video link in the opening
‘HARD-HEADED’: Some people did not evacuate to protect their property or because they were skeptical of the warnings, a disaster agency official said Typhoon Man-yi yesterday slammed into the Philippines’ most populous island, with the national weather service warning of flooding, landslides and huge waves as the storm sweeps across the archipelago nation. Man-yi was still packing maximum sustained winds of 185kph after making its first landfall late on Saturday on lightly populated Catanduanes island. More than 1.2 million people fled their homes ahead of Man-yi as the weather forecaster warned of a “life-threatening” effect from the powerful storm, which follows an unusual streak of violent weather. Man-yi uprooted trees, brought down power lines and smashed flimsy houses to pieces after hitting Catanduanes in the typhoon-prone
HOPEFUL FOR PEACE: Zelenskiy said that the war would ‘end sooner’ with Trump and that Ukraine must do all it can to ensure the fighting ends next year Russia’s state-owned gas company Gazprom early yesterday suspended gas deliveries via Ukraine, Vienna-based utility OMV said, in a development that signals a fast-approaching end of Moscow’s last gas flows to Europe. Russia’s oldest gas-export route to Europe, a pipeline dating back to Soviet days via Ukraine, is set to shut at the end of this year. Ukraine has said it would not extend the transit agreement with Russian state-owned Gazprom to deprive Russia of profits that Kyiv says help to finance the war against it. Moscow’s suspension of gas for Austria, the main receiver of gas via Ukraine, means Russia now only
‘HUGS NOT WORKING’: Ken Salazar said that the bodies of people killed by violence ‘can be seen everywhere’ and that the nation’s leaders were downplaying the issue Mexico failed to accept aid in its fight against drug cartels and “closed the doors” on security cooperation with Washington, US Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar told a news conference in Mexico City on Wednesday. Salazar said there was rampant violence, police corruption and that the Mexican government had the mistaken attitude that “there is no problem.” “When they just say: ‘There is no problem, we have these statistics to show people there is no problem,’ that is not based on reality,” Salazar said. “There is a very big problem.” Mexico sent a diplomatic note to the US embassy “expressing its surprise” at
RSS