What can be done to prevent the harmful effects of carcinogens in the workplace, and what are the emerging issues in this area?

On 24 – 25 September, the Austrian Presidency of the Council of the EU is hosting a high-level conference, ‘Fight against Occupational Cancer’, in Vienna. A range of speakers and participants, including politicians, social partners and experts in the field explore ways of protecting Europe’s workers from exposure to carcinogens at work.

We believe that by informing and educating workers and employers — and offering practical solutions — we can reduce and even eliminate exposure to carcinogens at work, thereby preventing needless suffering and deaths from cancer.

The conference provides an overview of current challenges, presents latest developments and ongoing initiatives. Aspects addressed range from the European perspective to simple measures and practical solutions suitable for implementation within companies. In workshops, participants will have the opportunity to discuss risk-based approaches, workplace risk management and health monitoring, and campaigning activities.’

At the conference EU-OSHA presents the 2018-19 Healthy Workplaces Campaign and chairs a session that looks at good practice, policy and awareness raising initiatives such as the EU Roadmap on Carcinogens. This action scheme informs about the risks from exposure to carcinogens and how to tackle them by finding practical solutions and sharing good practices. Started in 2016 under the Netherlands EU Presidency, the roadmap’s next destination is Helsinki, with the forthcoming Finnish EU Presidency announcing to support the scheme in 2019.

Marianne Thyssen, EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility states that “the Roadmap is a very welcome initiative to ensure that our ambitious agenda launched to update the protection against exposure to carcinogens is applied on the work floor throughout the EU”.

The impact of eye injuries to businesses is an estimated $300 million annually, which includes medical bills compensation and downtime, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“Protection against carcinogenic substances is also of particular concern to Austria. Our mutual goal is to reduce the number of victims now and in the future. Therefore a joint and strong approach to this problem at European level is required,” says Beate Hartinger-Klein, Austrian Minister of Labour, Social Affairs, Health and Consumer Protection.

“At the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA), we are working to highlight the scale of the problem and the importance of preventing exposure to carcinogens at work as part of our current campaign, Healthy Workplaces Manage Dangerous Substances ”, says Director Christa Sedlatschek. “We believe that by informing and educating workers and employers — and offering practical solutions — we can reduce and even eliminate exposure to carcinogens at work, thereby preventing needless suffering and deaths from cancer.”