The Committee adopted the report by Mrs Marjatta STENIUS-KAUKONEN (FIN,
GUE/NGL) on a Commission proposal to amend Directive 90/394/EEC on the
protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to carcinogens at
work.
The rapporteur welcomed the Commission's proposal to extend the scope of the
directive to cover, inter alia, medicinal products, cosmetics, waste,
pesticides, explosives and foodstuffs. The widening of the scope of
application is important and logical, since the risks of workers does not
depend on the use to which the chemical agents are put. It is also important
to know how and by whom these medicins, cosmetics, explosives etc. were
deemed to be carcinogenic. A specific course of action must be worked out to
produce a speedy classification e.g. in the area of the chemicals in the
extended area of application.
The risks of cancer from heavy metals will increase perceptibly in the
future. This will, says the rapporteur, become apparent as the section of
the population which hasbeen exposed to these begins to age. Urgent measures
must be taken to set limit values for new heavy metals. Arsenic has been
shown with certainty to cause human skin cancer. There are therefore reasons
for setting a limit value for arsenic as well as for benzene. The Committee
adopted amendments proposing a limit value of 0,01 mg/m3 in an average
period of 8 hours.