§ Mr. DawsonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on the EU Regulations contained in Directive 96/79 contained in Official Journal, C, 6 December 1997, No. 335 with regard to workers employed in the animal rendering industry; and if he will make a statement on the implementation of these regulations. [26245]
§ Angela Eagle[holding answer 29 January 1998]: This question appears to refer to Commission Directive 97/65, published in the Official Journal L335 on 6 December 1997, which amends Directive 90/679/EEC on the protection of workers from risks related to exposure to biological agents at work. In the light of recent scientific evidence of a link between Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (nvCJD), Directive 97/65 adds the agent of BSE to list of biological agents.
It will be implemented in the UK by means of a new edition of the Health and Safety Commission's Categorisation of biological agents according to hazard and categories of containment (Approved List), made under section 15 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The deadline for implementation is 30 June 1998.
The categorisation of biological agents mainly affects those working in laboratories. The change will not affect workers in the rendering industry who are already covered by the requirements of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 1994. In view of the past uncertainty about the risks from BSE, prudent and precautionary worker safety measures have been recommended since 1989. General guidance for occupational groups such as the rendering industry, prepared on behalf of the Health and Safety Commission, the Department of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food by the Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP), was published in August 1996. Copies have been deposited in the Library. ACDP considers that this guidance continues to provide adequate control in recommending the maintenance of high standards of occupational hygiene and new methods of working to avoid or minimise exposure to tissues of cattle that may carry the agent of BSE infectivity.