{"id":668255,"date":"2026-10-28T22:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T22:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/668255\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T22:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T22:54:10","slug":"eu-considers-lowering-limit-to-silica-dust-exposure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/668255\/","title":{"rendered":"EU considers lowering limit to silica dust exposure"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Commission is considering lowering the level of silica dust that workers can be exposed to, a conference in Dublin has heard.<\/p>\n

Workers in quarries or involved in brick or tile-making can be exposed to crystalline silica dust, which can cause lung cancer<\/a> and silicosis.<\/p>\n

The EU’s current limit is 0.1mg\/m3 averaged over eight hours.<\/p>\n

European Commission official Maria Luisa Cabral, who has responsibility for working conditions, said the commission is considering lowering the acceptable exposure limit to increase protection for workers.<\/p>\n

She said that the effects of workplace exposure to carcinogens can be “invisible” and the consequences are not always immediate.<\/p>\n

She made the comments at a carcinogens conference held in Dublin by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), as part of Ireland’s presidency of the Council of the EU.<\/p>\n

The conference heard information in relation to the five main carcinogens: Asbestos, benzene, silica dust, tobacco smoke, and formaldehyde.<\/p>\n

The conference also heard from the Environmental Protection Agency about the higher risk posed by radon in Ireland, which is the second highest cause of lung cancer here.<\/p>\n

Elke De Vits, chair of the SLIC Asbestos Campaign Working Group, also warned that an increase in the retrofitting of homes poses a greater risk of exposing workers to asbestos, as the banned material is disrupted in older homes.<\/p>\n

“Asbestos exposure is estimated to account for up to 78% of recognised occupational cancers in the EU,” she said.<\/p>\n

“[Green build projects across Europe] are accelerating the renovations of existing buildings to improve energy efficiency, which is really necessary.<\/p>\n

“But as more older buildings are upgraded, workers are increasingly likely to encounter asbestos.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AnAn increase in the retrofitting of homes poses a greater risk of exposing workers to asbestos. Picture: iStock<\/p>\n

“Renovating activities such as drilling, cutting, or demolition can disturb asbestos-containing materials and cause hazardous asbestos fibres to be released.<\/p>\n

“So it makes sense that renovation workers are particularly at risk of exposure.”<\/p>\n

Chief executive of the HSA Mark Cullen said a person’s ill-health related to exposure to carcinogens at their workplace can develop over many years.<\/p>\n

“Some of the most serious risks only become evident much later in life,” he told attendees.<\/p>\n

The Irish Cancer Society’s cancer prevention manager Kevin O’Hagan said preventing exposure to carcinogens at the workplace had been “neglected”.<\/p>\n

The charity has estimated that around 420 cancer cases in Ireland could be directly linked to workplace exposure.<\/p>\n

Mr O’Hagan said that a recent public information campaign warned manual workers that they may be at higher risk of developing lung cancer due to exposure from chemicals, fumes, paints, and metal dust. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Commission is considering lowering the level of silica dust that workers can be exposed to, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[258,74289,103,61,60],"class_list":["post-668255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-cancer","tag-eu-presidency","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}