EU guidelines

For occupational exposure, the European Parliament and the Council adopted in 2013 (26 June) Directive 2013/35/EU repealing Directive 2004/40/EC on minimum health and safety requirements regarding the exposure of workers to the risks arising from physical agents (electromagnetic fields).

The Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive no later than 1st July 2016.

The action values and limit values in this directive are based on the 2010 ICNIRP Guidelines.

On 20 February 2013, the European Commission held a workshop in Brussels on “Risk Communication – Electromagnetic Fields and Human Health”.

Here are the conclusions of the presentation regarding the role of the EU institutions in EMF protection:

Regarding the protection of the general public from potential effects of EMF, the EU Treaties give the primary responsibility to the Member States and do not confer the Commission competence to legislate. The Council Recommendation on EMF exposure limits (1999/519/EC) was adopted to propose a common protective framework to guide the action of Member States in the hope to bring coherence among the various national approaches. Following the subsidiarity principle (apart from workers’ protection), the role of the EU institutions is limited to provision of independent scientific advice (SCENIHR’s work) and to coordination and harmonization of the Member States policies as well as promotion of the best practices.

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