DEVELOPMENT OF CRITERIA FOR COMPANIES EMF EXPOSURE PREVENTION AND CONTROL, IN THE 2004/40/EC DIRECTIVE FRAMEWORK CONTEXT

According to its category of new and emerging risk, the exposure to electric and electromagnetic fields (EMF) is still an unknown problem for companies and in general it doesn’t represent a business priority. In many cases there exists a concern about uncovering a new safety problem with an unclear scope yet.

Furthermore, there are several additional aspects that make the management of this risk in companies still more difficult. They can be cited the inexistence of an international agreement about long term effects on health, the complexity of a multisource and a multifrequency industrial environment and the need to communicate this risk in a special way in order to avoid social alarm.
 
The EU Directive on electromagnetic fields (2004/40/EC) entered into force in 4.30.2004 and the Member States shall bring the regulations necessary to comply with it, no later than four year after this date (2008). This Directive establishes that the employer is responsible for the prevention of risks derived from EMF exposure, for its evaluation and, if necessary, for the implementation of adequate control measures to guarantee exposures in compliance with stabilised limits.

In this context, taking into account the potential impact of the Directive in companies and with an approach of technology alert, the main objective of this project is to develop preventive actuation criteria addressed to the prevention, evaluation and control of occupational EMF exposure, in order to facilitate the implementation of the Directive 40/2004/EC in the Spanish enterprises, with a special focus on the viability to implement control measures and a special consideration of the SME sector. The results of the project will be a software tool (interactive CD), and documental material for the development of a future Web page of the National Institute of Safety and Hygiene at Work (INSHT), jointly with a future guide from this organisation about this topic.

The project will be developed during 2006 and 2007 and it will be performed by a multidisciplinary research team from LEIA Foundation and Iberdrola S.A. that will add their capacities and background in occupational EMF exposure, as well as their contacts with national and international research and standardization organizations. This project is in the framework of the European and Spanish Technologic Platform in Industrial Safety, whose core group includes the two partners of this project. 

PROJECT GRANTED BY THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF SAFETY AND HYGIENE AT WORK (INSHT) - MINISTER OF WORK AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS