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27/02/2008
The EU’s 2004 Directive on the exposure of workers to electromagnetic fields will not come into force as it was meant to this April. On 19 February, the European Parliament responded to medical community protests by adopting MEP Jan Andersson’s (PES) report to put off the deadline for Member States to carry the Directive into law until 2012. The ETUC argues that this decision will be bad for the roll-out of shopfloor prevention in the sectors concerned.
On 29 April 2004, the European Parliament adopted a directive to give more protection to European workers who were exposed to electromagnetic waves. The introduction of "exposure limits" was meant to help "protect workers against the risks arising from physical agents" But, in 2006, doctors’ representatives voiced concerns to the European Commission about bringing the measure into law, arguing that the exposure limits set by the EU place a disproportionate restriction on the use and development of MRI, which is an important tool for the analysis and treatment of various diseases.
The medical community’s lobbying paid off, for the European Union is taking time out to think things over. The Commission decided to set an "in-depth impact assessment analysis" going on the directive’s provisions so as to "not have an adverse effect on the practice of MRI, whilst ensuring appropriate protection of personnel". The conclusions of the World Health Organization (WHO), which is also to look into the matter, will be also studied closely.
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has criticised the postponement of the Electromagnetic Fields Directive. The labour body described it as a "first" for the Commission, which has never before suggested delaying the transposition of a directive meant to protect workers' health and safety. The proposed measure is completely out of proportion to the issues raised, because the directive does not just apply to medical equipment. In any event, the exposure of medical personnel would in most cases be limited by preventive measures to levels within the exposure limits set by the Directive. The ETUC points out that the proposal for a Directive goes back to 1993, so that putting it off for four more years makes a 20-year lapse between the date of proposal and the date of transposition. The European trade unions say that the postponement will hold back the roll-out of prevention in the firms concerned and in various Member States that have no regulations on the matter. They emphasize that the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) and the ILO published a report showing the immediate health effects of electromagnetic fields more than twenty years ago. In fact, the Directive is itself based on exposure limits defined by the ICNIRP.
The directive is part of a "package" of four directives on the exposure of workers to the risks arising from physical agents: noise, vibrations, electromagnetic fields and optical radiation. The directive which the Commission wants to postpone contains measures to protect workers against the direct health effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields. In other words, it does not aim to protect them from the long-term effects of electromagnetic fields, in particular the risk of developing cancer.
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