Table 1. Examples of Cancer Risk Factors and Protective Factors That May Be Amenable to Workplace Interventions^a .

Factors	Associated Cancers	Prevalence Among US Adults
Risk factors
Alcohol consumption	Breast, colorectum, esophagus, larynx, liver, oral cavity, pharynx (6)	Approximately 55% of adults drink alcohol, 17% of adults are binge drinkers,b and 6% are heavy drinkers (7).c
Asbestos	Larynx, lung, mesothelioma, ovary (8)	An estimated 1.3 million construction and general industry workers are potentially exposed to asbestos (9).
Diabetes	Bladder, breast, colon, endometrium, liver, pancreas (10)	Approximately 11% of adults have diabetes, and prevalence increases with increasing age (11).
Diesel exhaust	Lung (12)	The amount of diesel exhaust adults are exposed to varies greatly, but some of the highest levels of exposure are among certain types of workers (eg, truck drivers, miners).d
Obesity	Colorectum, endometrium, esophagus, gallbladder, kidney, pancreas, postmenopausal breast (6)	More than one-third of adults are obese (13).
Radiation exposure from medical imaging	Breast, leukemia, lung, thyroid (14)	Americans receive nearly half their total radiation exposure from medical imaging and other medical sources (15).
Radon	Lung (16)	Approximately 37% of all radiation exposure is attributed to radon, and there are an estimated 21,000 lung cancer deaths attributed to radon exposure each year (15,17).
Red meat consumption	Colorectum (6)	Adults consume an average of approximately 40 g of red meat per day per person (18).
Sedentary behavior	Colorectum, endometrium, ovary, prostate (19)	Among employed adults, 4 out of 5 have occupations that are sedentary or require only light physical activity (20).
Shift work	Breast (21)	Approximately 15% of full-time wage and salary workers usually work a nonstandard shift (22).
Tobacco use	Acute myeloid leukemia, bladder, cervical, colorectum, esophagus, kidney, larynx, liver, lung, oral cavity, pancreas, pharynx, stomach (23)	One in 5 working adults smokes cigarettes (24).
Ultraviolet radiation exposure	Skin (melanoma and nonmelanoma), melanoma of the eye (25)	Approximately 37% of adults experienced sunburn in the past 12 months (26); among employed adults, about 1 in 4 regularly works outdoors twice per week or more (27).
Protective Factors
Fruit consumption	Esophagus, larynx, lung, pharynx, oral cavity, stomach (6)	Most adults do not meet federal dietary recommendations for fruit intake (28).
High-fiber diet	Colorectum (6)	Less than 5% of adults meet or exceed adequate intake levels for dietary fiber (29).
Physical activity	Colorectum, endometrium, postmenopausal breast (6)	Only 1 in 5 adults meets the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (30).
Radon testing and mitigation	Lung (16)	Only 3 states (Florida, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island) require radon testing in all public buildings (31).
Vegetable consumption	Esophagus, larynx, stomach, oral cavity, pharynx (6)	Most adults do not meet federal dietary recommendations for vegetable intake (28).
Weight maintenance	Postmenopausal breast (6)	Most adults experience clinically meaningful weight gain (≥22 pounds) during adulthood (32).

^a This list is not intended to be exhaustive but rather to provide examples of cancer risk-related factors that could be addressed in workplace health promotion and protection efforts.

^b Binge drinkers are defined as men having 5 or more drinks on 1 occasion and women having 4 or more drinks on 1 occasion.

^c Heavy drinkers are defined as men having more than 2 drinks per day or more than 14 drinks per week and women having more than 1 drink per day or more than 7 drinks per week.

^d The most recent estimates of occupational exposure are based on data from 1981–1983 and indicate that, at that time, approximately 1.35 million US workers were occupationally exposed to the combustion products of diesel fuel (http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/88-116/#niosh1983).