This Directive has as its aim the protection of workers against risks to their health and safety, including the prevention of such risks, arising or likely to arise from exposure to carcinogens or mutagens at work.

It lays down particular minimum requirements in this area, including limit values.

This Directive shall not apply to workers exposed only to radiation covered by the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community.

Directive 89/391/EEC shall apply fully to the whole area referred to in paragraph 1, without prejudice to more stringent and/or specific provisions contained in this Directive.

As regards asbestos, which is dealt with by Directive 2009/148/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council9, the provisions of this Directive shall apply whenever they are more favourable to health and safety at work.

This Directive shall apply to activities in which workers are or are likely to be exposed to carcinogens or mutagens as a result of their work.

In the case of any activity likely to involve a risk of exposure to carcinogens or mutagens, the nature, degree and duration of workers' exposure shall be determined in order to make it possible to assess any risk to the workers' health or safety and to lay down the measures to be taken.

The assessment shall be renewed regularly and in any event when any change occurs in the conditions which may affect workers' exposure to carcinogens or mutagens.

The employer shall supply the authorities responsible at their request with the information used for making the assessment.

When assessing the risk, account shall be taken of all other routes of exposure, such as absorption into and/or through the skin.

When the risk assessment is carried out, employers shall give particular attention to any effects concerning the health or safety of workers at particular risk and shall, inter alia, take account of the desirability of not employing such workers in areas where they may come into contact with carcinogens or mutagens.

The employer shall reduce the use of a carcinogen or mutagen at the place of work, in particular by replacing it, in so far as is technically possible, by a substance, F1mixture or process which, under its conditions of use, is not dangerous or is less dangerous to workers' health or safety, as the case may be.

The employer shall, upon request, submit the findings of his investigations to the relevant authorities.

Where the results of the assessment referred to in Article 3(2) reveal a risk to workers' health or safety, workers' exposure must be prevented.

Where it is not technically possible to replace the carcinogen or mutagen by a substance, F1mixture or process which, under its conditions of use, is not dangerous or is less dangerous to health or safety, the employer shall ensure that the carcinogen or mutagen is, in so far as is technically possible, manufactured and used in a closed system.

Where a closed system is not technically possible, the employer shall ensure that the level of exposure of workers is reduced to as low a level as is technically possible.

Exposure shall not exceed the limit value of a carcinogen as set out in Annex III.

In the event of an unforeseeable event or an accident which is likely to result in an abnormal exposure of workers, the employer shall inform the workers thereof.

For certain activities such as maintenance, in respect of which it is foreseeable that there is the potential for a significant increase in exposure of workers, and in respect of which all scope for further technical preventive measures for limiting workers' exposure has already been exhausted, the employer shall determine, after consultation of the workers and/or their representatives in the undertaking or establishment, without prejudice to the employer's responsibility, the measures necessary to reduce the duration of workers' exposure to the minimum possible and to ensure protection of workers while they are engaged in such activities.

Pursuant to the first subparagraph, the workers concerned shall be provided with protective clothing and individual respiratory protection equipment which they must wear as long as the abnormal exposure persists; that exposure may not be permanent and shall be kept to the strict minimum of time necessary for each worker.

Appropriate measures shall be taken to ensure that the areas in which the activities referred to in the first subparagraph of paragraph 1 take place are clearly demarcated and indicated or that unauthorised persons are prevented by other means from having access to such areas.

Workers may not be charged for the cost of the measures set out in paragraph 1.

Employers shall inform workers of installations and related containers containing carcinogens or mutagens, ensure that all containers, packages and installations containing carcinogens or mutagens are labelled clearly and legibly, and display clearly visible warning and hazard signs.

The Member States shall establish, in accordance with national laws and/or practice, arrangements for carrying out relevant health surveillance of workers for whom the results of the assessment referred to in Article 3(2) reveal a risk to health or safety.

The arrangements referred to in paragraph 1 shall be such that each worker shall be able to undergo, if appropriate, relevant health surveillance:

• prior to exposure,

• at regular intervals thereafter.

Those arrangements shall be such that it is directly possible to implement individual and occupational hygiene measures.

If a worker is found to be suffering from an abnormality which is suspected to be the result of exposure to carcinogens or mutagens, the doctor or authority responsible for the health surveillance of workers may require other workers who have been similarly exposed to undergo health surveillance.

In that event, a reassessment of the risk of exposure shall be carried out in accordance with Article 3(2).

In cases where health surveillance is carried out, an individual medical record shall be kept and the doctor or authority responsible for health surveillance shall propose any protective or preventive measures to be taken in respect of any individual workers.

Information and advice must be given to workers regarding any health surveillance which they may undergo following the end of exposure.

In accordance with national laws and/or practice:

• workers shall have access to the results of the health surveillance which concern them, and

• the workers concerned or the employer may request a review of the results of the health surveillance.

Practical recommendations for the health surveillance of workers are given in Annex II.

All cases of cancer identified in accordance with national laws and/or practice as resulting from occupational exposure to a carcinogen or mutagen shall be notified to the competent authority.

The list referred to in point (c) of Article 12 and the medical record referred to in Article 14(4) shall be kept for at least 40 years following the end of exposure, in accordance with national laws and/or practice.

Those documents shall be made available to the responsible authority in cases where the undertaking ceases activity, in accordance with national laws and/or practice.

The Council shall, in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 137(2) of the Treaty, set out limit values in Directives on the basis of the available information, including scientific and technical data, in respect of all those carcinogens or mutagens for which this is possible, and, where necessary, other directly related provisions.

Limit values and other directly related provisions are set out in Annex III.

Annexes I and III may be amended in accordance only with the procedure laid down in Article 137(2) of the Treaty.

Purely technical adjustments to Annex II in the light of technical progress, changes in international regulations or specifications and new findings in the field of carcinogens or mutagens shall be adopted in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 17 of Directive 89/391/EEC.