What the initiative aims to achieve
The Roadmap brings together authorities, employers’ and trade union organisations, and European institutions to promote the prevention of work-related cancer. It combines awareness-raising with solutions and tools for companies and workers.
Its voluntary nature refers to the collaborative initiative. It does not make the obligations to control carcinogenic agents established by the legislation of the country and activity voluntary.
Finding your way around its resources
The portal allows users to start with an occupation, an agent or a prevention strategy. It also presents inspection cases to explain how exposures are identified and measures applied.
This structure helps when the occupation is known but the inventory of agents is not yet complete. The examples are a starting point: they must be checked against actual materials, equipment, tasks and conditions, including occasional maintenance and cleaning activities.
Identifying more than purchased products
Prevention information must consider both substances used and agents generated by the process. An inventory limited to containers and safety data sheets may overlook emissions produced during a task.
The portal proposes gathering information on agents, quantities, tasks and potentially exposed people. The duration and circumstances of contact also matter. Identification should describe how exposure occurs, rather than merely add names to a list.
What STOP means
STOP orders the types of measures: substitution, technical measures, organisational measures and personal protection. The approach begins by considering the substitution of hazardous substances or processes. Technical measures include closed systems or effective capture.
Organisation complements these controls and must cover situations such as cleaning and maintenance. Personal protection may be necessary when the preceding measures are insufficient, but it does not justify omitting appropriate substitution or technical improvements.
From a published solution to a workplace measure
Before adopting a solution, check whether it controls the agent and exposure route present. Local exhaust ventilation requires appropriate design, use and maintenance; the existence of extraction equipment does not prove its effectiveness.
The decision should be documented, measures implemented and their operation checked. The initiative’s resources are not a complete list of legal requirements or a certificate that the process has been made safe.
Hypothetical example: reviewing a cutting operation
A workshop consults occupation-specific resources and recognises that dust generated when cutting certain materials merits review, even though it is not listed as a purchased product. It identifies the composition, assesses exposure and studies alternatives and technical controls.
It then verifies the measure under real conditions and trains the team to use it. The Roadmap’s value was in facilitating identification and decision-making; merely downloading a factsheet does not reduce exposure.
