On 11 July 2017, the COREPER voted an agreement reached by the Council presidency, the European Commission and the European Parliament on a new Directive to protect the workers from exposure to carcinogens or mutagens in the workplace.
The directive proposes to set exposure limits for a further 11 carcinogens in addition to those covered by the existing 2004 directive, among which a Binding Limit Value for Respirable Crystalline Silica at 0.1 mg/m³. Recital 6 of the Directive acknowledges the role of the Good Practices of the Social Dialogue NEPSI.
CU supports the most recent value adopted for respirable crystalline silica (RCS) and believes it is a good start to have NEPSI mentioned in the recital. However, NEPSI’s efforts should be highlighted in Annex IIIB of the CMD, not to lose the efforts done by the various industries since the last 10 years to contain the exposure of employees to RCS.
On the 27th of December 2017, the final act was published in the Official Journal.