28% of school cafeteria workers suffer from lung diseases: Education Ministry

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28% of school cafeteria workers suffer from lung diseases: Education Ministry

Published: 14 Mar. 2023, 18:26 Updated: 14 Mar. 2023, 18:27

School cafeteria cooks ask for improved working environment for those in school food services during a press conference held in Yongsan District, central Seoul, Tuesday morning. [YONHAP]

Three out of 10 people who work for school food services in Korea are suffering from lung problems, according to the Ministry of Education.

The ministry released the results of lung cancer screenings of 24,065 school cafeteria workers in 14 cities and provinces, excluding Seoul, Gyeonggi and North Chungcheong on Tuesday.

Some 6,773 workers, or 28.2 percent of those who were checked, had lung issues such as solitary pulmonary nodules.

There were 139 suspected cases of lung cancer. Of these, 31 were confirmed as cancer. Over the past five years, 60 workers have been diagnosed with lung cancer.

School cafeteria workers had a higher chance of getting cancer than workers of the same age in other places.

Among school cafeteria workers, there were 135.1 cases of cancer per 100,000, 1.1 times higher than the cancer rate of women between the ages of 45 and 64, which is 122.3 out of 100,000, according to Ministry of Welfare and Health statistics.

Long exposure to cooking oil fumes that contain carcinogens, such as aldehydes, is a major factor behind the higher cancer rates.

The cancer numbers would likely climb even higher if school cafeteria workers in Seoul, Gyeonggi and North Chungcheong were included.

According to screening results revealed by Democratic Party lawmaker Kang Deuk-gu on March 6, 32.4 percent of 42,077 workers in school cafeterias in 17 cities and provinces were diagnosed with lung ailments.

After the Korea Worker's Compensation & Welfare Service recognized the death of a cafeteria worker from lung cancer as an industrial accident for the first time in February 2021, the Ministry of Employment and Labor crafted lung exam guidelines calling on cafeteria workers over the age of 55 who have worked in cafeterias for over 10 years to get low dose chest CT scans.

The Education Ministry also plans to provide guidance to cafeteria workers with lung cancer on how to register their cases as industrial accidents, as well as to subsidize examinations of suspected cases.

Working environments will also be improved, the ministry said.

The government will spend 179.9 billion won ($137 million) to improve the ventilation system in cooking zones. Schools will be asked to use ovens when cooking meals that cause lots of cooking fumes. Cafeteria kitchens will also limit fried dishes to less than two a week.

A union of educational workers and union of school contractors have joined hands to demand that education authorities improve working conditions.

“We have the privilege of the best free school lunches in the world thanks to everyone's effort, but this was possible due to the bent fingers, burnt skin and lung cancer cells of the people who prepared the meals,” said a representative of the school contractor union Tuesday.

“It is also hard to hire new workers because of the poor work environment.”

Labor unions also criticized the ministry’s proposed measures as unpractical and asked for the hiring of more workers and improved ventilation systems.

BY LEE HOO-YEON, CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]