Understanding European Union Member States practices for the recognition of Occupational Cancer

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) is planning to launch a call for tender to gain a comprehensive understanding of the different practices in EU Member States and the EFTA states for the recognition of occupational cancer. The European Commission recommendation concerning the European schedule of occupational diseases is followed by many MS and most of them have a national list of occupational diseases, including some cancers. Many countries have also implemented a complementary system of recognition under which workers must prove the causal link between the diseases and their job. In general, most countries have already a very comprehensive list of carcinogenic agents and activities capable of causing cancer. However, the cancers registered in these national lists differ between states, which means that the presumption that some cancers may be occupational in origin is not uniform across the EU. In addition, in most countries, a key requirement for the cancer to be recognised as occupational in origin, is to demonstrate the worker has been exposed. These conditions to prove the exposure and link it to the specific cancer differ among the countries. The overall objective of the contract to be awarded is: To describe the different systems and conditions for the recognition of occupational cancer required in the EU and EFTA countries and analyse the different practices and key challenges encountered by the countries with the aim of issuing recommendations. The specific objectives are: • To describe the legal framework for the recognition of occupational cancer. This includes: the description of the systems and practices followed in each country for the recognition of occupational diseases and the system and practices for the recognition of occupational cancer in case it is different. The description of the pathway to demonstrate the link between the exposure and the cancer. Explain the role of the different stakeholders (doctors, labour inspectors, other competent authorities, employment insurance companies, employers, etc). • To list, for each country, the types of cancers registered on national lists, complementary and other systems of recognition of occupational diseases, by tumour location, broken down by causal agent and occupation. • To describe for each country and occupational cancer the different conditions and information required to demonstrate a worker has been exposed to the carcinogen agent so the exposure or work activity can be linked to the cancer (e.g. work history, working conditions at each employment, occupational exposure, medical history, etc). • The mechanism to collect the required information to demonstrate the link between the exposure and the cancer considering the latency of cancer is 20-30 years. • How the systems operate in practice: main challenges, limitations and strengths, e.g. whether there is effective coordination among the intervening stakeholders and whether the data collection is centralized or fragmented. • To provide recommendations for improvement of the practices and procedures for the recognition of occupational cancer, including details on how to improve the collection of information to demonstrate the casual link between the exposure and the cancer. The information to achieve these objectives will be collected through: -a questionnaire developed by the contractor to be awarded and distributed to a national expert per country (identified by the contracting authority); -interviews with these national experts; and desk research. Expected deliverables are questionnaires, interview recordings, research reports, executive summary, policy brief, and a PowerPoint presentation. Please find more information on how to express interest and on the technical and professional capacity here: https://osha.europa.eu/en/about-eu-osha/procurement/osha2026lvp0009-exa-understanding-european-union-member-states-practices-recognition-occupational-cancer