Health and Safety at work - optical radiation
September 6, 2005 12:00 AM
By Liz Lynne
By Liz Lynne
Mr President, I speak on behalf of the whole of the ALDE Group, contrary to what Mr Hughes was implying. I would like to thank the rapporteur for his cooperation on this directive. I now hope that all MEPs, including the Socialists, will see sense and either completely remove natural radiation from this directive, or at least pass the compromise that we voted for in committee and leave it up to Member States. It is absolutely ludicrous to keep it in. I thought it was a joke when I first read it. I did not believe that the Council and the Commission could actually be serious about this. It would bring the EU into further disrepute if we legislate against the sun in the workplace. Apart from that, this is a reasonably sensible directive, to protect people like welders from artificial radiation, but we should not include natural radiation from the sun. As the text stands at present, employers would be required to do a risk assessment every day, bringing in technical and organisational measures to protect workers. What does that mean? Keeping them in from the sun a lot of the time? Providing protective equipment, such as sunglasses, hats, or sun tan cream, and making sure that they wear them? It is no business of the EU to tell workers that they cannot be bare-chested or wear shorts. They are adults.
Imagine the language if workers were told to cover up when they were trying to get a sun tan from their holiday. And how would you prove liability? If a worker gets skin cancer, was it in the workplace, was it on the beach, was it in the back garden? It would in my opinion be a legal nightmare. Yes, everyone should be warned about the dangers of the sun, but that should not be up to employers. Government campaigns should warn everybody.
If we pass this directive and include natural radiation, this would be taking the 'nanny state' mentality too far. I sincerely hope that all MEPs will either vote to remove natural radiation from the text, or vote for the compromise in committee.
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