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EUROPEAN REVIEW

ISSUE 14 - Page 7

OSHA finds new approach to Health & Safety in Marketing and Procurement

THE TRADITIONAL WAYS of promoting health and safety have been legislation and enforcement but the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (OSHA) has identified two other areas which companies and governments are exploring in a bid to improve conditions. In a recent report they highlight procurement, 'the use of Occupational Safety and Health as a criteria in purchasing products and services from other companies', and marketing 'the use of Occupational Safety and Health as a marketing element for promoting the sales of their products or services'. Companies want to enhance their reputation for quality including paying more attention to health and safety issues while consumers are becoming more conscious of social and ethical values related to the production process.

The report gives several examples of how this process can work. One concerns the TCO workers association from Sweden (equivalent to the TUC). The TCO decided in the early eighties that its 1.3 million members would be using personal computers more and more. At the same time health concerns were emerging about		magnetic fields and their effect on pregnancy problems as well as physical strain injuries. The union federation approach was to consult technical experts as well as users to draw up a set of standards for PCs. Those manufacturers complying would be granted the TCO label. Purchasers would know that if they bought TCO labelled
	The TCO label

equipment, not only would they get safer computers but that there were likely to be less problems with users. The scheme was a great success. By 1998 90 million TCO labelled units had been sold worldwide, electromagnetic fields were a tenth of their strength when the label was introduced and flicker and energy use had been sharply reduced. In all the report contains 22 case examples with opinions of them from workers, customers, and purchase and health and safety managers. These include Renault's insistence that contractors at its new technology centre meet stringent conditions before selection which was also on the basis of their occupational health and safety record. The work and safety of the 900 successful contractors were rigorously monitored and, as a result, the accident frequency rates were far less than half of that of the construction industry in general.

The printed report 'Occupational Safety and Health in Marketing and Procurement'.ISBN 92-95007-01-8 can be ordered from the EC's Publication Office, EUR-OP, in Luxembourg, price €9

EU Commissioners express food safety fears and point the way forward

IN A RECENT 'round table' Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne and Franz Fischler for Agriculture reflected on public disquiet after recent food scares. Meeting food producers, retailers, consumer experts and scientists, they launched a debate on a 'strategic re-thinking of food production'. They said that consumer expectations appear to be increasingly mismatched with market provision. The price versus quality trade-off seemed to be moving away from purely low-cost considerations, 'I want to see a quality driven single market in foodstuffs,' David Byrne said explaining the initiative. Also ethical values concerning the environment, animal welfare and social responsibility were increasingly on consumers' minds. 'Responsible agriculture must be viable yet sustainable - economically, environmentally and socially. We must work more and more with nature and not against it' Commissioner Fischler stated. Follow-up actions that emerged from the round table included national round-tables in Member States, televised and internet debates, the involvement of the European Parliament and further analysis and research.

Mr. Byrne enlarged on his thoughts in a subsequent speech to the Centre for European Policy Studies. He said that modern food production methods raised concerns beyond human health and safety including 'environmental and ethical aspects'. He also questioned the priorities of multinational food producing companies 'What is the trade off between the development of the modern-day global brands and food quality?' he asked. Turning to actions taken to improve things he commended the Commission's White Paper on Food Safety and their plans to establish a European Food Authority. 'Of our 84 point action plan, we have some 25 measures agreed'.

Your chance to speak on sustainable development

The EU has produced a paper on sustainable development and what is more they want your comments !

The Helsinki meeting of the Council of Ministers in 1999 invited the European Commission to 'prepare a proposal for a long-term strategy dovetailing policies for economically, socially and ecologically sustainable development' for the meeting at Gothenburg this June. This paper is now ready but the EU Environment directorate regards it as a catalyst for debate. They want discussion around 10 questions posed in the paper which range from the rôle of business and workers to the impact on the candidate countries.

The paper can be downloaded from:	http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/eussd/index.htm
and e-mails sent to:	env-susdev@cec.eu.int

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