Safety and health at work: exposure of workers to electromagnetic fields

The European Parliament adopted the report by Manuel PÉREZ ÀLVAREZ (EPP-ED, E) broadly approving the Council's common position subject to five amendments, which were substantially the same as those agreed by its committee.

Parliament emphasised the preventive nature of surveillance, and inserted certain clauses aimed at reinstating the right to a medical examination in the event of over-exposure and strengthening the prevention system set up by the directive. Parliament stipulated that, if health damage resulting from over-exposure was detected, the employer should carry out a reassessment of the risks and ensure that the doctor and/or the medical authority responsible for health surveillance had access to the results of the risk assessment. Individual workers should also be given access to their own personal health records where they so request.

Parliament also introduced a new article requiring Member States to provide for "effective, proportionate and dissuasive" sanctions if their laws governing this area are broken. In addition, the Commission should inform Parliament every five years of any steps needed in the light of new scientific knowledge, particularly in connection with exposure to static magnetic fields, for which the directive lays down no exposure limits.