EU Parliament endorses new limits for lead and diisocyanates exposure

The European Parliament gave the final approval on Wednesday (7 February) to the new rules that will limit workers’ exposure to lead and diisocyanates and step up health protection. 

The new legislation, already agreed upon in interinstitutional discussions in November, was endorsed during the plenary in Strasbourg with 589 votes in favour, 10 against, and 40 abstentions.  

“Today, no one should die or get sick from going to work. That is why it is so important that we today put workers’ health at the forefront”, Danish MEP Nikolaj Villumsen, rapporteur for the file,  said during the debate in Strasbourg. 

This directive, the fifth revision of the EU legislation on cancer-causing substances, updates the previous lead restrictions set in 1982 and sets limits for diisocyanates – chemical compounds used in making polyurethane products – for the first time in the European Union. 

Lead is a naturally occurring metal used in various products, including gasoline, paint, plumbing pipes, ceramics, solders, batteries, and cosmetics.

It can damage the central nervous system, affect sexual function and fertility, and harm the development of a foetus or offspring of exposed women. It can also affect the kidneys, the heart, and the blood. 

According to the European Commission, lead accounts for around half of all occupational exposures to reprotoxic substances, with approximately 300 cases of ill-health occurring annually in the EU due to past exposure to lead. 

Workers can be exposed to lead due to its historical use in renovations, waste collection, recycling, and environmental remediation. 

Diisocyanates 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 asthma – between 9% to 15% of all 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. 

“It is something we know is dangerous but at the same time, we cannot do without it”, explained Villumsen.   

He added that by “drastically improving the protection against it, we take an important step. We help ensure that the green transition, which we all need, will not sacrifice workers health and safety”. 

For lead, the new rules will set the limits at less than a quarter of the current values: the occupational exposure limit will be set at 0.03 mg/m3 and the biological limit value at 15 µg/100 ml. For this last case, a transition period of three years is foreseen. 

In the case of diisocyanates, the new occupational exposure limit will be set at 6 µg NCO/m3 – the maximum concentration that a worker can be exposed to during an eight-hour working day – and at 12 µg NCO/m3 for short-term exposure.

EU Institutions also agreed that the Commission will revise lead limits in five years, taking into account updated scientific data, to better protect workers of childbearing age, while rules for diisocyanate will also be reviewed by 2029.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic] 

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