Dangers of asbestos for workers and the environment

Doc. 8445

18 June 1999

Dangers of asbestos for workers and the environment

Recommendation 1369 (1998)

Reply from the Committee of Ministers

adopted at the 675^th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies (15 June 1999)

The Committee of Ministers has taken note of Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1369 (1998) on the danger of asbestos for workers and the environment. The Committee of Ministers drew the attention of member State Governments to this text on 1 May 1998.

The text has also been brought to the attention of labour and management organisations (ETUC and UNICE), international non-governmental organisations, the European Commission, ILO, WTO, WHO and OECD.

The Committee of Ministers has transmitted Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1369 to the Governmental Committee of the European Social Charter and to the European Health Committee (CDSP) to be taken into account in its relevant activities. A copy of this reply has also been forwarded to the CDSP.

The Partial Agreement in the Social and Public Health Field and the mechanisms established under the European Social Charter are the two sectors in the Council of Europe where the dangers linked with asbestos in the working environment are being or have been considered.

In March 1981 the Committee of Ministers confined to the States members of the Partial Agreement in the Social and Public Health Field adopted Resolution AP (81) 5 “on technical and personal protective measures for the prevention of exposure of workers to asbestos dust”. In March 1999, taking into account Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1369 (1998), its Public Health Committee (CD-P-SP) was instructed to report by 31 December 1999 on the advisability of revising the said Resolution in the light of existing European Community and international standards in the matter.

Recommendation 1369 is in line with the guarantees already secured by the European Social Charter in Article 3 on safe and healthy working conditions.

The European Convention on Civil Liability for damage resulting from activities dangerous to the environment (ETS 150) and the Convention on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law (ETS 172) also contain provisions of relevance.

The Committee of Ministers notes that there is a difference of views among member States concerning whether the same approach should be applied to amphibolic asbestos and to chrysotile asbestos. In the view of most member States there are sound scientific reasons from the perspective of protection of public and workers' health for treating all forms of asbestos in a similar manner. These States welcome Assembly Recommendation 1369. It is the view of a small minority that, according to certain scientific data, there is a major difference between these types of asbestos as regards the implications of their use for human health and the environment. The States concerned stress the need for further international research, which would cover not only the various types of asbestos but also their substitutes, whose greater safety, they consider, is not proven. Bearing in mind the different approaches regarding asbestos, the Committee of Ministers points out to the Parliamentary Assembly that it is not for the Council of Europe to carry out a comparative scientific analysis of the properties of various types of asbestos and its alternatives. This is a question for other international bodies.