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THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION HAS for some time been trying to revise European law on the use of chemicals in industry. At the moment the system is split between some 2,700 substances discovered since 1981 and the 99% used before that date. While the 'new' chemicals are subjected to testing and assessment of risk to human health and the environment , the 'old' ones do not undergo the same process.
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The EU wants to get rid of this distinction as well as making the users of these chemicals responsible for the testing rather than the authorities as this makes 'information on uses of substances ... difficult to obtain'. The new system will be known as REACH which consists of registration, evaluation and authorisation. About 30,000 substances of which more than 1 tonne is produced must be registered and the deadlines which extend to 2012 are graded according to the amount of material produced. This is one of the points which has caused controversy. |
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While the Commission was keen to ensure 'a level playing field for our industry [and to] provide industry a clear framework within which they can work on a competitive footing with other global players', unions, including the TUC, have objected to this volume-based approach. 'The strategy should be risk based, not bulk-based', they say. In general the TUC believes that an explicit objective of the new strategy should be the protection of workers' health and that while it refers only to human health 'it will probably be taken to be a reference to consumer or public health, and therefore exclude workers' health'. | |
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Chemical industry workers are exposed to 30,000 different substances | |||
This balance must be struck by the environment and industry
commissioners, Wallström and Liikanen and they intend to have an
'internet consultation' open to all interested parties before
finalising the text of the proposal in the summer.
FROM OUR EU PARTNER FINLAND comes depressing news about the effort necessary to reduce workplace accidents and ensure occupational health and safety. According to 'Trade Union News', 'despite the massive human and material investments in occupational safety and health made in the 1990s, there has been no decisive improvement'. Their web site quotes figures which show that accidents at work have barely fallen since 1998 after rising in the middle years of the decade. In 1980 there were 36 accidents per million working hours (an accident is defined as causing at least three days of sick leave). The corresponding figure for 1993 was 20 accidents. Progress since then has been slow, with a figure of 18 accidents per million working hours in 2000.
The reasons cited for this have many echoes in the UK. Outsourcing and subcontracting are blamed, with 40% of fatal accidents occurring at large workplaces where management has been divided between several employers. Both the accelerating pace of work and constant changes in work practice have contributed. Two out of three fatal accidents happened in jobs which rapidly changed their functions while stress has increased with the pace of work. An interesting side effect of this is the phenomenon of tooth grinding; in a survey of workers at the Finnish Broadcasting Company researchers found that 26% of women and 17% of men said that they ground their teeth. Those employees reporting that they were under stress were more likely to be grinders. The use of new chemicals has markedly increased since the eighties and this is reflected in the figures for occupational disease; it is thought that one million employees are exposed to chemicals to some extent.
Compensated industrial accidents and occupational diseases in Finland, 1992-2000 | |||||
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1992 |
1994 |
1996 |
1998 |
2000 |
Occupational diseases |
6,808 |
6,614 |
6,012 |
5,396 |
3,775 |
Workplace accidents |
93,681 |
93,073 |
95,646 |
104,553 |
102,820 |
Work-related traffic accidents |
14,703 |
13.172 |
11,339 |
15.471 |
13,857 |
TOTAL |
115,192 |
112,859 |
112,997 |
125,420 |
120,434 |
In 2000 Finnish insurance companies payed out €500 million in compensation for accidents and occupational diseases. The government is anxious to reduce this figure and to persuade more Finnish workers to stay on past the average retirement age of 59. To these ends it has initiated the 'occupational accident prevention programme 2001-2005' which seeks a radical reduction in the number of work accidents. It lists seventeen measures to be taken to encourage a good safety culture at the workplace. A new occupational safety law requires employers to apply safety management methods in all of their operations, including planning and organising work. The method of gathering statistics has also been revised to make it easier to compare firms in the same industry and across the EU. Research and training has been stepped up as 'Only 20 per cent of the occupational safety staff of enterprises have participated in basic occupational safety courses', according to Professor Liesivuori of the University of Kuopio who continues 'there is too much indifference in the various organisations concerned'.
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The Trade Union News web site in Finland is at: |
Ireland has proposed a blanket ban on smoking at work. Following a report into the effects of passive smoking Irish Minister for Health, Micheal Martin announced that the ban, which includes pubs and restaurants would start on January 1, 2004. The trade union Mandate estimates that 150 bar staff die in Ireland each year from ill-health caused by exposure to other people's smoking. Now Wales, where the assembly has reserved the right to ban workplace smoking, and Scotland, whose parliament will introduce a similar bill after the May elections, are following Ireland's lead. Pressure is likely to increase on the UK government which has delayed a code of practice for 4 years.
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