31/10/2007
On 26 October, the European Commission asked the Council to put back the deadline set for Member States to transpose the Electromagnetic Fields Directive by four years. The Directive was adopted in 2004 and should have come into effect in April 2008. It aims to protect workers against the harmful short-term effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields in workplaces.  The Commission claims the delay is needed because bringing the Directive into force would interfere with the use of technologies like magnetic resonance imaging in the hospital sector in particular.

“This is an unprecedented move by the Commission. Never before has the entry into force of a Health and Safety at Work Directive been put back”, hit out Marc Sapir, Director of the Health and Safety Department at the ETUI-REHS, the European Trade Union Confederation’s research institute. The trade union view is that postponing the Directive, which applies far beyond the health care sector alone, will leave millions of workers unnecessarily exposed to high doses of electromagnetic radiation and will cause indefensible delays in the taking of preventive measures, as well as training and information for the workers concerned.

• The Commission Communication