Stricter rules on cancer-causing substances at workplaces have been adopted by the European Parliament. It’s added 11 carcinogens to a 2004 directive in a bid to save 100,000 lives across the EU within five decades. The EU's reformed Carcinogen and Mutagen Directive was the culmination of 10 years' legislative effort to tackle cancer as the biggest workplace killer. Carcinogens at workplaces account for 53 percent of all work-related deaths in the EU, that appear as lung cancer, asbestos-caused mesothelioma and bladder cancer,
The new rules should benefit workers in the construction sector, chemical, automotive, woodworking and furniture industries, food product and textile manufacturing workers as well as those in the healthcare and hospital sectors.
In future, employers will be required to assess and ensure for their workers lower levels of 13 substances in workplace air, including hydrazine, vinyl bromide and crystalline silica dust created, for example, during mining and concrete crushing. Included among the 13 substances, are tighter limits on hardwood dusts, resulting from cutting or pulverizing wood, and vinyl chloride monomer in plastics. Parliament also urged the European Commission to draft further controls by 2019 on workplace substances that harm human fertility.
40 international scientists in a wider study on worldwide pollution included an estimate that workplace pollution alone - from exposure to toxins and carcinogens - resulted in 800,000 deaths globally.
The new rules should benefit workers in the construction sector, chemical, automotive, woodworking and furniture industries, food product and textile manufacturing workers as well as those in the healthcare and hospital sectors.
In future, employers will be required to assess and ensure for their workers lower levels of 13 substances in workplace air, including hydrazine, vinyl bromide and crystalline silica dust created, for example, during mining and concrete crushing. Included among the 13 substances, are tighter limits on hardwood dusts, resulting from cutting or pulverizing wood, and vinyl chloride monomer in plastics. Parliament also urged the European Commission to draft further controls by 2019 on workplace substances that harm human fertility.
40 international scientists in a wider study on worldwide pollution included an estimate that workplace pollution alone - from exposure to toxins and carcinogens - resulted in 800,000 deaths globally.
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