Council adopts Directive on protection against exposure to electromagnetic fields

A new EU health and safety Directive, protecting workers against exposure to electromagnetic fields, was adopted in April 2004. This is the third so-called 'physical agents' Directive.

On 7 April 2004, the Council of the European Union adopted a Directive on minimum health and safety requirements regarding the exposure of workers to electromagnetic fields.

These provisions originally formed part of a single 'physical agents' proposal, which was issued in 1993 and sought to establish minimum health and safety requirements for workers exposed to physical agents such as noise, mechanical vibrations, optical radiation and electromagnetic fields and waves.

In 1999, in view of the differences between the physical agents concerned and differing levels of the state of scientific knowledge, the European Commission decided to split the proposal into four parts, each dealing with a separate physical agents issue. Directives on mechanical vibration (2002/44/EC) and on noise (2003/10/EC) were subsequently adopted, in June 2002 and December 2002 respectively. The proposal on electromagnetic fields was drawn up in 2002 (EU0212205F) and began to make its way through the EU decision-making machinery. Although it was subject to the co-decision procedure, under which the European Parliament (EP) and the Council must reach agreement on the final text, this proposal proved to be relatively uncontroversial.

Accordingly, the Council reached a common position on the text on 18 December 2003 and (EU0311206F) the EP gave the text a second reading on 30 March 2004, proposing five amendments. The Council decided that it could accept all of these amendments and adopted the Directive by written procedure on 7 April 2004. It is now awaiting publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

The Directive establishes exposure limit values and action values based on recommendations drawn up by the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection. It attributes responsibility to employers for assessing exposure levels, adopting preventive measures and arranging for information and training for their workers. The Directive is limited to the short-term effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields as there is currently insufficient scientific evidence on possible long-term effects of exposure. After publication in the Official Journal, Member States have four years in which to implement the Directive.