EU Questions Electromagnetic Radiation Limits

It is fashionable in many healthcare circles to denigrate the European Union for adopting a high-handed and inflexible approach to many of the complex issues that health policy is fated to cover. It is still more fashionable—indeed almost mandatory—to castigate the European Parliament, the EU’s self-styled representative of the people, for adopting an unrealistically cautious attitude to health regulation. January has offered a compelling instance that such prejudices are certainly not always justified.

The European parliament’s health committee has pushed through a special exemption that will rescue magnetic resonance imaging from excessive red tape under new EU rules on protecting workers from electromagnetic fields. Peter Liese, a center-right German member of the parliament who is also a medical doctor, was one of the most energetic and vocal advocates of adapting the law to take account of special interests that risked being overlooked.

As part of a strategy to protect employees from the risks arising from physical agents, the European Union is setting limits for electromagnetic radiation—limits so tight that they pose a problem for medical examinations using MRI. Liese has argued vehemently that without an exemption, routine medical use of MRI would become impossibly complicated, inhibiting examination and treatment of problems. He cites the particular difficulties that would arise in cases where a doctor or a nurse needs to accompany anxious patients into the tube for therapy. Surgery under MRI would also be compromised, he says. “The technique is vital to diagnose and treat patients suffering from cancer or brain diseases,” says Liese.

He adds that for over 30 years, no significant health risks have been reported, and any risks are of very theoretical nature. His arguments influenced the health committee, which voted with a huge majority for an exemption. The proposed modification to the text still provides for protection of staff, by insisting on special training and strict procedures.

This is not, however, the end of the story. The parliament’s employment committee also has to accept the exemption when it votes on the text in February. And only then will the battle be renewed with ministers from the member countries meeting in the European Council, which have so far resisted any such derogation.

“The health committee has sent a strong signal to the Council, which is still blocking on this issue,” said Leise after the health committee’s vote. He called on the Council to end its blockade and adopt the proposal quickly. “It would be baffling if the member states continued to block a proposal which contributes to reduce bureaucracy on behalf of the patients and doctors, and which the the Parliament supports,” he said.

All very reasonable. The EU as a whole now has another chance to disprove those critics who continue to regard it as inflexible and unrealistic.