December 9, 2005

At a meeting of the conciliation committee on 6 December, the Council and the European Parliament formally gave the green light to the Directive on the protection of workers from risks linked to exposure to optical radiation. The Council accepted the EP's request to exclude from this legislation rays from natural sources such as the sun.

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) had warned MEPs and the Council that these amendments will undermine the scope of the directive by putting natural UV radiation outside it. The directive will now cover only damage to eyesight from artificial radiation and lasers, leaving the damaging effects of sunshine (cancer, eye and skin diseases) completely uncovered. Exposure to sunshine can be lethally damaging to the health of workers in many sectors (building, fishing, farming, tourism, etc.), as the European and WHO statistics on skin cancer mortality show.

If the agreement is approved in plenary session (the vote is planned for February 2006), Member States will have four years to bring it into practice. This Directive is the last in a series of four aimed at protecting workers from the dangers of various “physical agents” (the three others are on exposure to noise, to vibrations and to electromagnetic fields).

• More details on the agreement
• HESA documents on solar radiation and health