Obesity increases cancer risk

One in three (29%) UK adults faces an increased risk of developing bowel, kidney, ovarian and liver case because they are obese, according to Cancer Research UK. Personnel Today reports that while smoking is still the UK’s biggest preventable cause of cancer and carries a much higher risk of the disease than obesity, the charity has warned that being overweight or obese is the leading cause of four different types of cancer and obese people now outnumber smokers two to one. Even though obesity itself is not a disability, employers might have to treat a worker with some of the conditions it causes as disabled within the meaning of the Equality Act 2010, suggested Alex Kiernan, partner at Loch Employment Law. ‘Under the Act cancer is an automatically "deemed disability", so the news that obesity is a bigger risk factor than smoking for a cancer diagnosis means employers would be wise to consider how they support the health and wellbeing of individuals in the workplace,’ said Kiernan.

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