Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Radiation
A directive to postpone, for four years, until 30 April 2012, the deadline for introducing legislation on workers' exposure to electromagnetic fields has now been adopted by the European Union (EU).
The Directive [PDF 11kb] deals only with health and safety at work, and applies to work activities where workers are exposed to risks from electromagnetic fields.
The Directive places a number of duties on employers. The main ones being that it:
The Directive applies to Britain, Northern Ireland, Gibraltar and UK territorial waters and airspace. It does not apply to the Crown Dependencies of Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
The HSC/E Strategy for taking forward this Directive is set out in Commission Paper HSC/07/31 [67kb] 
HSE has set up two working groups to help with the implementation of the EMF Directive: a) the EMF Working group which is a broad based cross industry grouping reflecting membership from a range of sectors likely to be affected by the Directives implementation in the UK; and b) the MRI working group which was set up to address the particular concerns of stakeholders from the Magnetic Resonance Imaging community. Both groups’ outputs will be used to inform the consultation process and final shape of the UK regulations.
HSE funded research commissioned from MCL-T Ltd on the potential impact of the Directive on MRI in healthcare was published on 13 June 2007.
The European Commission has mandated the technical standards body CENELEC to develop guidance in the form of standardised assessment protocols for use by employers for exposure assessment. This will be supplemented as necessary by more specific guidance developed primarily by industry in conjunction with HSE as appropriate.
The Directive puts on a legal footing internationally accepted (ICNIRP) guidelines which are designed to protect people from the acute effects of exposure. The ICNIRP EMF guidelines are almost identical to those published by the former National Radiological Protection Board (now incorporated into the Health Protection Agency) that are currently used both by industry and HSE Inspectors when assessing risk from exposure to electromagnetic fields.
ICNIRP is a body of independent scientific experts whose principal aim is to disseminate information and advice on the potential health hazard of exposure to non-ionising radiation including electromagnetic fields. Their guidelines on exposure to EMFs have been developed as a result of an extensive process of expert review of the scientific literature and consultation with other experts and professional bodies.
The Health Protection Agency's role is to provide an integrated approach to protecting UK public health through the provision of support and advice. HPA has the statutory function of giving advice to Government on all radiation matters. In March 2004 HPA RPD (NRPB, as it then was) recommended that the UK should adopt the Guidelines drawn up by the International Commission for Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) published in 1998 (these were originally published in 1994 for static magnetic fields and in 1998 for the rest of the spectrum). This recommendation was accepted by Government.