Article 18
United Kingdom
Subject to Article 3(3), the measures referred to in paragraphs 2 to 5 shall be taken.
An assessment of each worker’s state of health must be available prior to the beginning of exposure to dust arising from asbestos or materials containing asbestos at the place of work.
That assessment shall include a specific examination of the chest. Annex I gives practical recommendations to which the Member States may refer for the clinical surveillance of workers. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 18a amending Annex I, to adapt it to technical progress.
Where, in duly justified and exceptional cases involving imminent, direct and serious risks to workers’ and other persons’ physical health and safety, imperative grounds of urgency require action in a very short timeframe, the procedure provided for in Article 18b shall apply to delegated acts adopted pursuant to this Article.
A new assessment must be available at least once every three years for as long as exposure continues.
An individual health record shall be established in accordance with national laws and/or practices for each worker referred to in the first subparagraph.
Following the clinical surveillance referred to in the second subparagraph of paragraph 2, the doctor or authority responsible for the medical surveillance of the workers shall, in accordance with national laws, advise on any individual protective or preventive measures to be taken or determine such measures.
Those measures may include, where appropriate, the withdrawal of the worker concerned from all exposure to asbestos.
Information and advice must be given to workers regarding any assessment of their health which they may undergo following the end of exposure.
The doctor or authority responsible for the medical surveillance of workers may indicate that medical surveillance must continue after the end of exposure for as long as they consider it necessary to safeguard the health of the person concerned.
Such continuing surveillance shall be carried out in accordance with national laws and/or practice.
The worker concerned or the employer may request a review of the assessments referred to in paragraph 3, in accordance with national laws.