23 Amendments of Konstantinos ARVANITIS related to 2019/2182(INL)
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 20 a (new)
Citation 20 a (new)
— having regard to its resolution of 10 July 2020 on the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability1a, _______________ 1a Texts adopted, P9_TA(2020)0201.
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F a (new)
Recital F a (new)
Fa. whereas asbestos is long recognised as a key occupational carcinogen and airborne fibres are very resistant when inhaled and can lead to asbestosis, mesothelioma, cancers of the lung, larynx, and ovary and other non- malignant lung and pleural disorders, including pleural plaques, pleural thickening, and benign pleural effusions;
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H b (new)
Recital H b (new)
Hb. whereas asbestos is a highly dangerous carcinogenic agent used worldwide in building and other materials in many areas of our daily life;
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas 80 % of occupational cancers recognised in the Member States are asbestos related; whereas estimates suggest that the cost of occupational cancer in the Union accounts for between EUR 270 and EUR 610 billion per year, or 1,8% to 4,1 % of GDP, and whereas 98 % of the human costs, including the impact on life quality and workers’ families, are endured by workers, and whereas direct and indirect costs account for between EUR 4 and EUR 10 billion per year;
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L k (new)
Recital L k (new)
Lk. whereas asbestos and asbestos- containing materials and products are still produced, processed, and exported worldwide, among others in Russia, as well as several Asian and Southern American countries; whereas Regulation (EU) No 649/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council1a establishes the implementation of the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent (PIC), whereby a country’s specific agreement is required before exporting a product containing toxic chemicals; whereas strengthening efforts to keep non-compliant products from being placed on the Union market was identified as a priority in the Commission communication of 28 October 2015 on ‘Upgrading the Single Market: more opportunities for people and business’ (COM(2015)0550); whereas existing market surveillance is unable to ensure that asbestos is not imported into European markets; and whereas, despite negative recommendations, surveillance is not able to ensure that asbestos is not imported into the Union; _____________ 1aRegulation (EU) No 649/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2012 concerning the export and import of hazardous chemicals (recast) (OJ L 201, 27.7.2012, p. 60).
Amendment 53 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L n (new)
Recital L n (new)
Ln. whereas the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee of 18 February 2015 on Freeing the EU from Asbestos (CCMI/130) states that it should be ensured that at Member State level all cases of asbestosis, mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases are registered by means of systematic data collection on occupational and non- occupational asbestos diseases, that pleural plaques are categorised and officially registered as an asbestos-related disease, that reliable mapping of asbestos presence is ensured, with the assistance of dedicated observatories, and that medical staff should receive appropriate training so they can perform their duty of sound diagnosis;
Amendment 73 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Welcomes Commission communication of 14 October 2020 entitled ‘A Renovation Wave for Europe’- greening our buildings, creating jobs, improving lives’, which seeks to renovate 35 million buildings by 2030; shares the view expressed in the communication that particular attention should be paid to protecting workers renovating old buildings and intervening in emergency operations from exposure to asbestos;
Amendment 75 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Insists that any Union initiative supporting energy renovation should include binding measures for the identification of buildings that contain asbestos, the combination of the related information to the databases related to energy retrofit, to lead to the safe removal of asbestos and other hazardous materials;
Amendment 84 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Reiterates its call for national public asbestos registers; calls on the Commission to introduce, as part of a proposal for a framework directive, minimum standards for publicly accessible digital national registers for asbestos and other hazardous substances in public and privately owned buildings; stresses that registers for asbestos should be compatible with databases and registers related to energy efficiency and populated via common tools (i.e. building renovation passports);
Amendment 92 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10a. Considers that the notions of friable and non-friable asbestos- containing materials should not be used to determine risk levels; believes an individual risk assessment related to the planned work process should determine the necessary and obligatory protective measures;
Amendment 94 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11a. Considers that the information included in the notification to the competent authorities should be complemented with the specific areas in which the work will be conducted, the equipment used for the protection and decontamination of workers, the equipment used for waste disposal, and a provisional aeraulic balance for work carried out under confinement; believes furthermore that the notification should include a description of the procedure for the decontamination of workers and equipment, and information about durations of work processes and planned working hours as well as a list of all workers assigned to the site, the individual certificates proving their competence and the training absolved, and the dates of their mandatory medical examinations (with due regard to national data protection rules);
Amendment 99 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 c (new)
Paragraph 12 c (new)
12c. Recalls that sampling must be representative of the personal exposure of the worker, implying that samples must be taken in representative and realistic situations of workers’ exposure to asbestos dust by repeatedly measuring in regular intervals during the specific operational phases; believes that if for whatever reason sampling cannot be done in a way representative of the personal exposure of the individual worker, all available protective measures should be applied;
Amendment 100 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 d (new)
Paragraph 12 d (new)
12d. Notes that optical microscopy is not the latest available technology to count asbestos fibres in the breathing air and that Analytical Transmission Electron Microscopy (ATEM) is more sensitive and makes it possible to distinguish and count asbestos fibres; calls for the use, wherever possible, of ATEM or similarly advanced methods for fibre counting;
Amendment 108 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Emphasises that employers, but also main contractors, contracting authorities, and owners commissioning work should be required to carry out an asbestos diagnosis before the start of any work in buildings, ships, aircraft, on equipment, or products; demands that prior to the start of work on premises that were built before 2005 or the national asbestos ban a comprehensive screening for the presence of asbestos-containing materials be carried out by a qualified and certified operator; believes that screenings should always include a diagnosis adapted to the specific workplace and a report should state either the absence or the presence of asbestos, with a detailed description of the nature of contamination and its precise location and estimated quantities;
Amendment 111 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Is concerned that training requirements and the certification of training carried out still vary greatly among Member States, which is a severe hazard for health and safety in the context of the cross-border mobility of workers; calls for a new annex to Directive 2009/148/EC with obligatory minimum requirements for training on work with asbestos, including specific requirements for workers in specialised asbestos removal companies as well as workers who could come into contact with asbestos containing materials while performing their work; in addition to the requirements laid down in Article 14 of Directive 2009/148/EC, believes that the annex should include requirements for a minimum duration of training with regard to the respective type of work, appropriate documentation of such training, and the regular intervals in which an individual worker must attend a training;
Amendment 114 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 a (new)
Paragraph 17 a (new)
17a. Calls on the Commission to make a proposal for the establishment of national ombudspersons to assist victims of occupational diseases, and especially asbestos-related diseases which have a long latency period, in recognition procedures;
Amendment 123 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 g (new)
Paragraph 19 g (new)
19g. Calls for a consideration of persons, and especially women, in cleaning jobs, as well as of women who primarily take responsibility for unpaid household chores, which might be carried out with cleaning products containing asbestos, in risk assessments and identification of exposure to asbestos, as well as for an increased consideration of cleaning activities as risk factors when screening for diseases;
Amendment 128 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Calls on the Commission to present a proposal for an amendment to Article 7 of Directive 2010/31/EU in the context of “A Renovation Wave for Europe” introducing a requirement for the mandatory asbestos screening, registering, and removal of asbestos and other dangerous substances before any renovation works can start, while having regard to Article 153(1)(a) TFEU on the improvement in particular of the working environment to protect workers' health and safety;
Amendment 134 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 d (new)
Paragraph 22 d (new)
22d. Underlines that the EU should further insist on a global ban on asbestos, prohibit the trading of asbestos and asbestos-containing materials and products via European ports, and strictly prohibit and monitor the import of such products into the EU internal market; welcomes the Council Conclusions of 12 March 2021 emphasising the need to strengthen national market surveillance capabilities and the role of the customs authorities; calls on the Member States to strengthen controls and market surveillance and to cooperate with other Member States’ border and customs authorities to prevent the entry of illegal asbestos-containing construction materials into the single market;
Amendment 149 #
Motion for a resolution
Annex I – paragraph 1 – point 4 – point a
Annex I – paragraph 1 – point 4 – point a
(a) accessibility for workers and companies working in a building or infrastructure, owners, inhabitants, firefighters and other emergency services and users;
Amendment 168 #
Motion for a resolution
Annex II – paragraph 1 – point 8 – paragraph 1
Annex II – paragraph 1 – point 8 – paragraph 1
Before beginning demolition or maintenance work, or renovation works on premises built before 2005, the premise must be screened to identify all asbestos- containing materials, in accordance with the requirements of Part 6 of Annex XVII to Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 and Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 305/2011. The screening must be conducted by a qualified and certified operator or authority, taking into account Articles 14 and 15 of this Directive, and the national building law provisions.
Amendment 180 #
Motion for a resolution
Annex II – paragraph 1 – point 17 a (new)
Annex II – paragraph 1 – point 17 a (new)
17a. Article 21a is inserted: ‘Article 21a In case of a fire, all existing information regarding the presence and location of asbestos, gathered and communicated in line with Article 4 on notification before commenced work and Article 11 on screening of demolition or maintenance sites, shall be made available to firefighters and emergency services.’
Amendment 196 #
Motion for a resolution
Annex III – paragraph 1 – point 4
Annex III – paragraph 1 – point 4
(4) a revisionersal of the burden of proof for the recognition of occupational diseases or at least its effective simplification;