On Monday 24 April, two days before the vote in the European Parliament Employment and Social Affairs Committee on the revision of the directive on occupational exposure to asbestos (see EUROPE 13153/8, 13160/31), the European Construction Industry Federation (FIEC) expressed its concerns.
In a statement, the FIEC considers the demands to be “unrealistic”, and says that they will have a “very significant financial impact”. The provisional agreement reached provides for the occupational exposure limit value (OEL) to be lowered by 100 times, from the current OEL to 0.001 fibres/cm3, within 4 years of the entry into force of the revised directive. During this transition period, it will also be necessary to organise the changeover to the electron microscopy technique, which will become the reference calculation method, whereas some countries still use the phase contrast technique.
“According to some estimates made at national level, where the OEL has been lowered by 10 times, over a period of several years, the costs of the entire asbestos removal process have been multiplied by 3 to 4, depending on the type of work to be done”, warns the FIEC.
“A more realistic approach would be sticking to the European Commission’s proposal for an OEL lowered to 0.01 fibres/cm3, coupled with a transition period of at least 5 years.”
Link to the position: https://aeur.eu/f/6i0 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)