Safety and security at work: protection from the risks related to exposure to asbestos (amend. Directive 83/477/EEC)

Out of the 37 amendments submitted by the European Parliament, the Commission accepted in full 9, and partially 3. It rejected 25 amendments. Amongst those accepted were the following: -prevention of asbestos release outside the workplace as well as inside; -provisions requiring more detailed information about asbestos risks as well as those adding medical examination frequency and health assessment information requirements; -information to be provided about the undertaking and the worker contracted to carry out activities involving asbestos; -appropriate breaks during the use of individual respiratory protective equipment; -the use of alternative measuring methods for the fibre counting of asbestos; -the addition of local authorities, civil protection services, and other authorities, bodies or individuals to the owners in order to provide information to identify presumed asbestos-containing materials. Amongst the amendments rejected was the expression of limit values as a time weighted average in a period of 4 hours instead of 8 hours. This was rejected because it would create confusion when compared to the same values in international standards which use a reference period of 8 hours.�