The member states support the upper limits proposed by the Commission to reduce the exposure of workers to carcinogens and mutagens, reaching a general approach on this issue at the Employment Council of 13 October. However, a third of them would like to see stricter values for exposure to chrome VI.
"Today's agreement brings us a step closer in our fight against the greatest cause of employment-related death in the European Union. Our aim is to help save 100,000 lives over the next 50 years", said Jan Richter, the Slovak employment minister.
The general approach changes the recitals in the draft directive to take account of the delegations' positions. It also adopts unchanged the ceilings proposed by the European Commission for the substances in question (see EUROPE 11551) – namely, alveolar crystalline silica dust, 1-2 epoxypropane, 1-3 butadiene, 2-nitropropane, acrylamide, various chrome components (VI), ethylene oxide, o-toluidine, refractory ceramic fibres, bromoethylene and hydrazine. However, France, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Lithuania have submitted a joint statement to be annexed to the minutes to express their view that the values are too high for chrome (VI). The Austrian delegation firmly believes that the limit for chrome VI does not offer adequate protection to workers. France stressed that only a limited amount is currently known about the substance. These nine delegations are the only states that took the floor during the table round debate.
By way of conclusion, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility Marianne Thyssen said that two other changes to Directive 2004/37/EC on carcinogens and mutagens were underway, one of which will be presented before the end of the year. This amendment is expected to concern around a dozen substances. Thyssen said that she had taken note of the comments regarding chrome VI and that this issue would be examined in the framework of the third list.
The negotiations with the Parliament on the ceilings for the 13 chemical substances will start once the Parliament has reached its position – which it will almost certainly do in February 2017. The general approach can be consulted at: http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-12883-2016-INIT/en/pdf (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)