A working group report handed in on 3 July 2007 to the Commission’s DG Enterprise endorsed a continued derogation that allows European industry to keep on using asbestos. A 1999 Directive which outlawed asbestos use in the EU granted a derogation for installations that use electrolysis cells. This is an industrial process involving asbestos diaphragms, used mainly by the chlor-alkali industry. When the Directive was adopted, it was agreed that the derogation would end on 1 January 2008. In a note sent to the Commission in June 2008, the ETUC unpicks the technical case made by DG Enterprise to justify maintaining the exception.

The ETUC is calling for a blanket ban on paint strippers that contain dichloromethane, a member of the chlorinated solvent group of chemicals that is responsible for a large number of deaths and accidents between 1989 and 2007. These paint removers are on open sale not just to building industry professionals, but also to ordinary shoppers on DIY store shelves. The European Parliament's (EP) Environment Committee is shortly to give its opinion on the Commission proposal to restrict their sale and use.

The ETUC Executive Committee adopted a first resolution on nanotechnologies and nanomaterials on 25 June. The ETUC’s key demand is that the precautionary principle must apply to nanotechnologies. The trade union confederation recognizes that nanotechnologies might have considerable development potential, but is concerned that significant uncertainties still revolve around their effects on human health and the environment.

European Union nations agreed Tuesday (10 June) to let workers opt out of a maximum 48-hour workweek and to give more rights to temporary workers across the 27-member bloc."The agreement on working time is highly unsatisfactory and unacceptable to the ETUC," said John Monks, ETUC General Secretary."We will now be working with allies in the European Parliament to amend this agreement," he added.

The new Machinery Directive adopted in 2006 will come into effect on 29 December 2009. It is a particularly complex piece of legislation that needs a route map through it in order to be implemented with proper regard for workers' safety.

The European Commission announced on 29 May that the Advisory Committee for Safety and Health at Work had approved its proposal for a Directive drawing up a third list of indicative occupational exposure limit values (IOELVs).The new list establishes IOELVs for 20 hazardous chemicals. The IOELVs proposed by the Commission for formaldehyde, carbon disulfide and mercury also got the ACSHW’s green light in the face of vigorous opposition by industry and the British and German governments.

On 22 May 2008, the European Parliament (EP) approved a draft Commission regulation laying down test methods for chemicals under the REACH regulation. The EP gave the thumbs-up after receiving assurances from the Commission that more streamlined and transparent procedures will be implemented for the acceptance of non-animal testing methods. Trade unions are not convinced that these “alternative tests” are always certain to produce sufficiently robust toxicological data.