EXCHANGE OF VIEWS on DRAFT OPINION OF JURI on the proposal for a directive of the EP and of the Council amending Directive 2004/37/EC on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to carcinogens or mutagens at work
(COM(2016)0248 – C8 0181/2016 – 2016/0130(COD))

Cancer is the leading cause (53%) of work-related deaths in the EU. Especially for workers and their families, cancer results not only in substantial loss as far as quality of life is concerned, but also in direct health care costs and indirect loss of present and future earnings. Occupational cancer impacts the economy at large too, reducing labour supply and productivity and increasing the burden on public finances through avoidable public expenditure on health care and other benefits. Finally, occupational cancer implies businesses staff replacement costs, productivity losses and the need to pay higher wages to compensate for the higher occupational risk.
The proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2004/37/EC on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to carcinogens or mutagens at work aims to improve workers’ health protection by reducing occupational exposure to carcinogenic chemical agents, increase the effectiveness of the EU legislation in this area and provide more clarity and a better level playing field for economic operators.
This proposal seeks therefore to bring within the scope of the Carcinogens and Mutagens Directive 2004/37/EC a number of chemical agents, such as hardwood dust, vinyl chloride monomer respirable crystalline silica dust, hydrazine, refractory ceramic fibres etc. All these are recognised as human carcinogens in countries outside the EU, or by international organisations such as the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), but they are not yet classified under the current EU system. Furthermore the proposal seeks to establish EU-wide occupational exposure limit values for carcinogens or mutagens at work, on the basis of the latest scientific and technical evidence, thus harmonising widely varying national limit values, where existent. This is estimated to save around 100.000 lives by 2069.
As a result I strongly support this proposal albeit with a number of amendments that mainly stress the need of a precautionary approach, which is particularly important where there are uncertainties as to the impact of dealing with mixtures of toxic agents on workers’ health or where available scientific and technical data is not sufficient. This calls essentially for the establishment of an effective cancer prevention paradigm that takes into account the multiple interacting factors that can lead to the development of cancer. Thus continuous action needs to be taken at EU level to introduce better health standards for individuals, to tackle situations involving workers’ exposure and to safeguard the fundamental rights to life, health and work.

(The deadline for Ams will be on 8 December 2016, noon)

Thank you

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Brussels, 08.11.2016