Parliament’s committee gives go-ahead to agreed rules for exposure to lead

The Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs Committee (EMPL) gave the green light for an agreement to step up workers’ health protection by lowering limit values for lead and diisocyanates, which was reached in interinstitutional trilogues last year.

On Thursday (11 January), EMPL voted in favour of the provisional agreement on the directive regarding the limit values for lead and its inorganic compounds and diisocyanates, moving closer to formal adoption. The agreement was reached between the Commission, Parliament and the Council on 14 November 2023 and now has to be endorsed by both the Parliament and the Council. 

This is the fifth revision of the EU legislation on cancer-causing substances – bringing essential changes to the Carcinogens, Mutagens and Reprotoxic Directive and the Chemical Agents Directive. 

The directive aims to protect workers from health risks linked to exposure to dangerous chemicals. “We have secured rules protecting millions of workers across the EU. This is the case for both lead and the until now unregulated and harmful diisocyanates,” on the day when the agreement was sealed, rapporteur of the file, Nikolaj Villumsen, Danish MEP from The Left, said.

The lead limit values are to be updated for the first time since 1982, while limit values for diisocyanates, as Villumsen mentioned, are to be regulated in the EU for the first time. 

Lead is a naturally occurring metal found throughout the Earth. It has been used in various products, including gasoline, paint, plumbing pipes, ceramics, solders, batteries, and cosmetics.

Despite its wide use, it is hazardous to health – ingested or inhaled, it can damage the central nervous system, affect sexual function and fertility, and it can harm the development of a foetus or offspring of exposed women. It can also affect the kidneys, the heart and blood. 

Based on the European Commission’s impact assessment performed before the proposal was presented, 100,000 workers in the EU are exposed to lead at work, making it responsible for around half of all occupational exposures to reprotoxic substances.

Exposure happens in lead mining and primary processing and subsequent use in products such as batteries. In addition, workers can be exposed to lead due to its historical application in renovations, waste collection, recycling, and environmental remediation. Approximately 300 cases of ill-health occur annually in the EU due to past exposure to lead. 

In the meantime, diisocyanates, a group of chemical compounds,  are widely used in industry, particularly in manufacturing polyurethanes and as hardeners in industrial paints, glues, varnishes and resins.

They can lead to respiratory irritation and lead to asthma. 9% to 15% of all asthma cases in adults of working age can be linked to occupational exposure to diisocyanates. The Commission’s impact assessment estimates that currently, 4.2 million workers in the EU are exposed to diisocyanates. 

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The EU Council on Monday (23 October) formally adopted the directive to step up the protection of workers from health risks related to asbestos, the final stage in the legislative process for the file.

What was agreed

Therefore, the agreed rules limit the occupational exposure limit of lead to 0.03 mg/m3 and the biological limit value to 15 µg/100 ml. In the case of the biological limit value, the directive foresees a transition period of three years on top of the two-year transposition period, during which the limit will be set at 30 µg/100 ml.

As female workers may face additional risks as lead can affect pregnant women and the developing foetus, the European Commission will have to revise these rules within five years to better protect female workers at childbearing age.

“This is key because too much lead in our body can negatively affect the fertility of women and men. It can result in miscarriages or serious birth defects, as well as other harmful consequences, such as neurotoxicity, renal toxicity and cardiovascular or haematological effects,” after the reached agreement, said Ilan de Basso, Swedish MEP from S&D, who is a shadow rapporteur for the file, in a press release. 

In the case of diisocyanates, the overall occupational limit value will be set at 6µg NCO/m3 – the maximum concentration that a worker can be exposed to during an eight-hour working day –  and at 12µg NCO/m3 for short-term exposure. The European Commission is to review these limits by 2029.

“More than four million industrial and construction workers can now look forward to limit values and better protection against something we have known for years is harming their health,” Villumsen said.

[Edited by Alice Taylor]

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