Further collaboration on the Roadmap on Carcinogens. 

The fight against occupational cancer has been an important topic not only since the initiation of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan. For some years now, various Member States have been working to raise awareness and promote cross-border exchange. This effort led to the Roadmap on Carcinogens in May 2016. It was set up by Austria, the Netherlands, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA), the European Commission, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the European employers' organisation BusinessEurope.

The success of this initiative was not long in coming. Finland and Germany joined in shortly. When the Roadmap was extended by four years, other Member States followed suit, including Belgium. The final conference which was also organised there presented the results of the Roadmap 2.0 mid-June this year. Among other things, the partners presented substitution strategies, guidance for risk management and educational measures.

Success story of the Roadmap 2.0

Over the past four years, the partners have worked together on several projects, so-called challenges. There were twelve challenges in total, spread across the following areas:

1. raising awareness among companies and workers of the risks of exposure to carcinogenic substances and the need to take preventive measures throughout Europe;
   
2. providing support for companies and workers to take preventive measures against exposure to carcinogens in the workplace and minimising the impact of these exposures on workers;
   
3. mobilising stakeholders and strengthening the involvement of relevant parties to achieve the extension of the measures to the whole of Europe, and
   
4. promoting innovations to bridge the gap between research results and business requirements.
   

Some of the results of Roadmap 2.0 were presented under the auspices of the Spanish Council Presidency at the "Occupational cancer prevention" conference in November 2023.

New direction of the Roadmap 3.0

Similar to the final conference for version 1.0 in 2020, it was also decided this time that an extension by four more years is necessary despite the good progress of the roadmap. The focus of Roadmap 3.0 is shifting from developing accessible information and tools to reaching, supporting and integrating users of such information and tools. To support the dissemination of information, the roadmap partners will launch a new website autumn this year. There, employers, employees and occupational safety experts can get specific answers to their questions about handling carcinogenic substances.

In addition to the new direction of the roadmap, there was also an expansion in the area of partners. Ireland and the Norwegian National Institute for Occupational Health (Stami) have decided to join the initiative. Existing partners at EU and national level, as well as employers and employees, are also reaffirming the importance of preventing occupational cancer through their renewed participation in the initiative.