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New EU Occupational Health and Safety guidelines should help to prevent bladder cancer

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(Vienna, Brussels, 28 October 2016) A consortium of international scientists has compiled a summary of 24 EU guidelines in a "White Paper", to be implemented by the individual parliaments to help prevent bladder cancer. MedUni Vienna played a significant role in this, under the lead of Shahrokh Shariat, Head of its Department of Urology.

Amongst other things, the guidelines include a Europe-wide campaign to reduce smoking in the workplace and to restrict activities that involve exposure to petroleum – in the case of painters, for example. In other jobs where risk factors cannot be eliminated completely, firms will be required to provide regular health screening for their employees. The experts are also calling for mandatory introduction of screening programmes for early detection and better training opportunities for doctors. 

Every year, approximately 1,600 people in Austria develop bladder cancer, which is four times more common in men than in women.