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THE ANNUAL COST OF work-related injuries and ill health could be as high as €270 billion among the EU member states according to a report published recently by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. 'Priorities and Strategies in Occupational Safety and Health' is a comprehensive overview of how economic factors combine with health and safety practices in different European countries. The report says that 'Legislation has been a traditional instrument for improving the level of occupational safety and health in all Member States. Whereas in the beginning the focus was mostly on safety matters, attention later turned more towards health-related matters'. Financial incentives too have become popular, 'The main types of these incentives are the differentiation of premiums for insuring against occupational accidents and diseases; public subsidies for research and technological development; tax benefits for companies investing in safety and health at work; and subsidising the assessment of [occupational safety and health] at company level'. As far as financial penalties go, some Member States indicate that the level of sanctions is too low to work as a deterrent and that they have taken initiatives to increase them. Furthermore, there seems to be an increasing interest in using administrative fines instead of, or in addition to, bringing offenders to court. Many states concentrate resources on specific areas, the risk categories that are considered to be important for the future are carcinogens, machine safety and the risk of falling,and psycho-social issues (especially stress at work). New issues are developing in organisation and management e.g. the development of risk assessment particularly in new work patterns. The emergence of these and changing demographics challenge the traditional roles of legislation and enforcement.
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Report available at: |
http://agency.osha.eu.int/publications/reports/301/en/index.htm | |
Over the last three months the European Parliament has discussed a number of health and safety issues which we will try to summarise below. On 8th February there was a debate on landfill waste. A common position (put to the parliament by the Council of Ministers) called for a reduction in landfill waste over the next 15 to 20 years to the level of 35% of that of 1995. Reporting on this to the Parliament, Caroline Jackson MEP ((Wiltshire North and Bath, EPP) maintained that many member states would find it difficult to meet the target - Greece, U.K., Italy, Ireland and Spain sent more than 80% of their waste to landfill at the moment. Mrs Jackson is tabling 19 amendments to the common position of which 3 were accepted by Commissioner Bjerregaard. These lowered the target to 25%, set a minimum distance to residential areas and called for the closure of illegal sites.
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MEPs: Christian Cabrol and Guido Viceconte | |
The European council has reached a 'common position' on an amending directive to the 1990 measure on carcinogens. This is now likely to become law. The main changes to the old directive are the inclusion of mutagens and hardwood dusts. In 1990 mutagens, which directly affect spermatozoa so causing defects that can be passed on to offspring, were only included if they were also cancer-causing. The main new substance to be added in this way is TGIC which is a powder paint used in filing cabinets, cars and window frames.Hardwood dusts, which can cause nasal cancer are also included and exposure limit values for these and vinyl chloride monomer (used to make PVC), also a carcinogen, are layed down.
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