10 PROTECTION OF WORKERS FROM RISKS ARISING
FROM OPTICAL RADIATION
(26027)
10678/04
—
+ ADD1
| Draft Directive on the minimum health and safety requirements regarding the exposure of workers to the risks arising from physical agents (optical radiation)
|
| Legal base | Article 137(2); co-decision; QMV
|
| Department | Work and Pensions
|
| Basis of consideration |
Minister's letter of 30 November 2005 |
| Previous Committee Reports
| HC 42-xxxv (2003-04), para 2 (3 November 2004) and HC 38-i (2004-05), para 3 (1 December 2004)
|
| To be discussed in Council
| Not applicable |
| Committee's assessment | Politically important
|
| Committee's decision | Cleared (following debate in European Standing Committee B)
|
Background
10.1 This document deals with the long- and short-term effect
on the eyes and skin of the fourth and last element, optical radiation
(light), of a broader proposal originally put forward by the Commission
in February 1993.[31]
In the case of artificial light, it would require action to be
taken when exposure limit values based on guidelines set by the
International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection
(ICNIRP) are exceeded, whilst exposure to the sun would have simply
required the risk to be reduced to a minimum by, for example,
the use of protective clothing.
10.2 Our predecessors considered this proposal on
3 November 2004, and again on 1 December 2004, when they noted
that a Regulatory Impact Assessment carried out by the Health
and Safety Executive had indicated that the risks to workers in
the UK from optical radiation were low, and arose in the main
not from the lack of adequate measures, but from poor compliance
with existing legislation. In view of this, they said that they
found it hard to see the justification the proposal, and that
they therefore believed that, before the Council took any decision
on it, it should be debated in European Standing Committee B.
That debate duly took place on 24 January 2005.
Minister's letter of 30 November 2005
10.3 We have now received a letter of 30 November
2005 from the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Work
and Pensions (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath), providing an update on
the progress of the proposal. He says that, when the Common Position
text agreed by the Council on 7 December 2004 was considered by
the European Parliament, it was the subject of a fierce and polarised
debate, with some MEPs calling for strengthened provisions on
sunlight, whilst others pressed strongly for the removal of those
provisions. In the event, the Parliament adopted a number of amendments
to the Common Position in September 2005, the main effects of
which were to remove entirely the provisions relating to sunlight
(and to propose that they should instead come within the regulatory
competence of the Member States), but to provide for appropriate
health surveillance for workers at risk.
10.4 The Minister notes that the removal of the sunlight
provisions has been accepted by the Commission, and that the main
area for negotiation between the Council, European Parliament
and Commission —
on which conciliation was due to take place on 6 December —
now relates to the health
surveillance provisions.
Conclusion
10.5 This document has of course been cleared
by virtue of the debate which took place in European Standing
Committee B on 24 January 2005. However, since the provisions
on exposure to sunlight were among the main concerns expressed
then, and figured largely in our predecessors' decision to recommend
the document for debate, we are drawing these latest —
and welcome —
developments to the attention of the House.
31 The other three elements were noise, vibration and
electro-magnetic radiation, which have now been enacted as Directives. Back
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