European workers will now benefit from enhanced health and safety protections, after the European Parliament Committee on Employment and Social Affairs voted to approve improved labour protections against exposure to dangerous chemicals.
The agreement marks the sixth revision of the EU’s carcinogens, mutagens and reprotoxic substances directive. It introduces new occupational exposure limit values for several dangerous substances, while also clarifying rules on personal protective equipment and introducing regular obligatory breaks for workers wearing it.
Renew Europe is particularly proud to have ensured that the directive clearly recognises that emergency services personnel and firefighters are inherently at risk of exposure to carcinogens, mutagens and reprotoxic substances at work. It also secures explicit protections for them against Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons.
In addition, Renew Europe’s lead negotiator Grégory Allione MEP (Renaissance, FR), a former firefighter himself, ensured that the directive includes occupational diseases and explicitly acknowledges that reducing exposure reduces the risk of occupational diseases for emergency personnel.
Allione said:
"Every year, tens of thousands of European workers develop cancer because of their exposure to dangerous substances at work. This compromise addresses that directly.
I am particularly pleased that this text finally recognises that our firefighters and emergency workers are also exposed to these cancer-causing substances as part of their job, an issue that carries particular weight after the summer we have just been through.
These advances will help prevent tens of thousands of cancers and occupational illnesses in the decades ahead. This is a concrete victory for the health of those who put themselves at risk every day."