A local PhD candidate is pushing for more education for women about health risks in the workplace.
Jane McArthur, a University of Windsor PhD candidate in sociology and social justice, is studying what women know about breast cancer and where they work, in particular, the Ambassador Bridge.
McArthur heard from over 50 women and interviewed 25 total, all who work or have worked at the bridge — according to the women she talked to, she believes upwards of 30 people have or have had breast cancer.
She tells The Morning Drive not all of the information is out there.
"These women who are working in an environment where they see 10,000 trucks a day and 4,000 cars, they're working shift work, they have a sense that perhaps their environment is contributing to risks for breast cancer for them."
McArthur says she spent anywhere from an hour and a half to three and a half hours with the different women.
"Who work at this time or had worked at the Ambassador Bridge at some point in their career, so there is a lot of information there, we pursued a lot of interesting discussions around the problem of information and how to sort out information."
She says there's a sense of things that aren't being discussed.
"A lot of women know the piece of the story of breast cancer that genetics are responsible for some of the breast cancers we're seeing, and what came out with that as well is that they believe there are high rates of breast cancer among their workers among other cancers and health problems."
McArthur says through her research, she has learned that more than 50% of breast cancers are likely attributed to environmental exposures and only 5-10% of breast cancer cases are genetic.
She says one common theme in her interviews is that the women would like to see a study that formally documents all the numbers.
— with files from The Morning Drive