Protecting workers by reducing exposure to carcinogens
Stricter EU rules to better protect workers from exposure to carcinogens or mutagens at work win Parliament’s final approval.
● Thresholds for additional 11 cancer-causing substances added to current list
● Workers in construction, chemical, wood working and textile sectors especially affected
These rules, which add another 11 carcinogens to the dangerous substances list and revise limit values for two existing ones, target the primary cause of work-related deaths in the EU. The aim is to help save up to 100,000 lives in the next 50 years.
Lower exposure limits
Occupational exposure limits, i.e. the maximum quantity of harmful substances (usually expressed in milligrams per cubic metre of air) that workers can be exposed to, have been set for:
● ten chemical agents:1,2-epoxypropane, 1,3-butadiene, 2-nitroproprane, acrylamide, bromoethylene, vinyl bromide, chromium (VI) compounds, ethylene oxide, hydrazine, and o-toluidine, plus refractory ceramic fibres, and
● process-generated crystalline silica dust, created by mining, cutting or crushing of materials such as concrete, bricks or rocks.
The new legislation also revises exposure limits for two substances already on the list:
● hardwood dusts (produced by cutting or pulverising wood), and
vinyl chloride monomer (mainly used to produce PVC)
● Employers will have to identify and assess risks to workers who are exposed to these substances and take preventive measures.
MEPs ensured that the Commission will have to assess the possibility of including reprotoxic substances, i.e. those having effects on sexual function and fertility, in the dangerous substances list by the first quarter of 2019.
Health surveillance
The new rules also lay down that the national authority responsible for the health surveillance of workers may decide that health surveillance must continue after the end of exposure, for as long as needed to safeguard health.
Source: European Parliament
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