The ETUI-REHS Health and Safety Department regrets the changes made by the EU Council to the draft directive on the exposure of workers to the risks arising from optical radiation.

The European Parliament's proposal addressed trade union demands on the prevention of malignant melanomas and carcinomas resulting from exposure to solar UV, but the ETUI-REHS now finds that the exposure assessment of workers exposed to solar UV (article 4) has been dropped from the position agreed on by the Council on 18 April this year. A risk assessment will now only be done for workers in particularly high-risk groups, disregarding countless jobs (in building, fishing, farming, etc.) where workers are particularly at risk of diseases like skin diseases, skin cancers, cataracts, and so on caused by over-exposure to solar radiation.

The draft directive is now with the European Parliament, where it may be amended.

• Text of the common position of the Council (18/04/2005)
• Text of the Communication of the Commission on the common position (04/05/2005)