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APPLICATION OF 2002/44/EC DIRECTIVE IN ITALY

Pietro Nataletti (1), Dario Marzano (2), Omar Nicolini (3)

(1) Occupational Hygiene Department, National Institute for Occupational Safety

and Prevention - ISPESL (Italy)

(2) Italian Workers’ Compensation Authority - INAIL (Italy)(3) Local health Service, Modena (Italy)

Abstract

The state of application of the 2002/44/EC Directive in Italy is presented. This

Directive has been transposed into the Italian legislation by the Legislative Decree

187/05, which came fully into force the 1st January 2006. Recent statistical data

show that the exposure to mechanical vibration results the fifth most common occu-

pational disease compensated in Italy. Preliminary surveys carried out by the repre-

sentatives of Crafts and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) show an inci-dence of 5-10% of firms affected by the Legislative Decree 187/05 which have car-

ried out or are going to carry out risk assessment.

1. Introduction

Despite a decline in the proportion of the workforce employed in traditional,

physically demanding sectors as manufacturing, construction, agriculture and min-

ing, some physical risks as mechanical vibrations and noise are still prevalent. In

fact, according to the Fourth European Survey on Working Conditions (ESWC) [1],

it has been estimated that about 24% of European workers are exposed to mechani-

cal vibrations, and the trend shows a slight increase across the last surveys since

1990. For Italy (Table 1) this estimation is about 26%, which corresponds to morethan 5 millions of workers.

Table 1 - Workers exposed to vibrations in the workplace in Italy

Exposure time

to vibrationAll the time At least three

quarter of the time

At least one quarter

of the time

Percentage of

exposed workers11 8 7



11th International Conference on Hand-Arm Vibration

668

There is a strong epidemiological evidence that prolonged exposure to hand-arm

vibration (HAV) and whole-body vibration (WBV) can lead to considerable pain

and time off work and may result in permanent disability. The most well-known

health effect consists in a blood circulation damage called Vibration White Finger

(VWF) or Raynaud’s syndrome, but other effects include damage to sensory nerves,muscles and to the hands and arms joints referred to as hand-harm vibration syn-

drome (HAVS).

After the issue of the EU Directive 2002/44/EC [2] on the minimum health and

safety requirements regarding the exposure of workers to the risks arising from vi-

bration, the Italian government has transposed this Directive into the Legislative De-

cree 187/05 [3], which is the first Italian regulation specifically concerned with pro-fessional exposure to mechanical vibrations, and came fully into force the 1 st Janu-

ary 2006. According to this law, employers have to implement a program of preven-

tion and reduction measures in the workplace in order to comply with the legislation.

In particular, they need to assess the levels of mechanical vibration to which workers

are exposed and, if necessary, measure these levels by means of specific apparatus

and appropriate methodologies. On the basis of the risk assessment the employer

shall determine what measures to take, according to the legal duties established by

the law: worker information and training, health surveillance, provisions aimed at

avoiding or reducing exposure.

2. Occupational vibration diseases

Despite the large amount of exposed workers and the strong epidemiological

evidence for a relationship between occupational exposure to hand-harm vibration(HAV) and a number of health effects and injuries, referred to as hand-harm vibra-

tion syndrome (HAVS), the Italian Workers’ Compensation Authority (INAIL) up

to recent years has recognized and compensated only angioneurotic and osteoarticu-

lar diseases and Raynaud’s syndrome caused by hand-transmitted mechanical vibra-

tion. Only in 2004, with a Decree of Ministry of Labour, some additional occupa-

tional diseases of the hand, the arm and the spine, related to mechanical vibration

exposure, started to be compensated for the first time in Italy. They are tendinitis

and tenosynovitis of hand or wrist, neuropathies of the arm, with mechanical vibra-

tion as highly probable causative agent; lumbar spondylosis and herniated lumbardiscs with mechanical vibration as low probability causative agent.

The statistical data regarding the total number of cases and the incidence rate of

occupational diseases, the economic activity and occupation in Italy are similar to

those reported in Europe [4], with manufacturing the most common economic activ-ity and craft and related trades workers the most common occupation. In the 2005

more than 26.000 new cases of occupational diseases were claimed to the INAIL,with a trend almost constant respect to the past four years, with more than 50%

caused by physical agents. In the period 2001-2005 a mean of only 1,1% of new

cases fell in the categories of diseases caused by mechanical vibration, compared to

about 10% at European level attribute to Raynaud’s syndrome alone [4], with a de-



Bologna (Italy), 3-7 June 2007

669

creasing trend in time. But, according to the recent compensation practices estab-

lished in 2004, if the other diseases related to mechanical exposure are added this

risk factor results in 2005 the fifth most common occupational disease compensated

in Italy, with an incidence of more than 10% (see table 2).

Plant and craft workers are still more significantly exposed to mechanical vibra-

tion, together with construction workers and agricultural workers. A raise in expo-sure to this risk factor occurred in the last years in service workers [5].

With the Legislative Decree 187/05 also neurological and muscular disorders of

the hand-arm system and lower- back morbidity and trauma of the spine have fully

entered into the national compensation practices, and for 2006 an increase of statis-

tical data of occupational diseases caused by mechanical vibration is expected.

Table 2 - Number of occupational diseases denounced to the INAIL in Italy

and causative agent in the period 2001-2005 [5]

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

All 28.360 26.750 25.136 26.351 26.332

Physical agents

(incidence %)

15.840

(55,9%)

12.485

(46,7%)

11.908

(47,4%)

13.352

(51,4%)

13.389

(50,8%)

Mechanical vibrations(osteoarticular and

angioneurotic diseases of

the hand and arm and

Raynaud’s syndrome)

(incidence %)

427(1,5%)

385(1,4%)

300(1,2%)

257(0,97%)

194(0,74%)

Carpal tunnel syndrome

(incidence %)

936

(3,3%)

782

(2,9%)

896

(3,5%)

1213

(4,6%)

1303

(4,9%)

Damages of intervertebral

discs

(incidence%)

662

(2,3%)

778

(2,9%)

942

(3,7%)

1412

(5,3%)

1818

(6,9%)

3. Compliance of the Italian legislation with the measures and values estab-

lished by the 2002/44/EC Directive

The Italian legislator transposed almost literally the general provisions, the obli-

gation of employers and the miscellaneous provisions set by the vibration Directive.

For what concerns the daily exposure action values and daily limit values it assumedthe same values, expressed in terms of r.m.s. acceleration, respectively: 2,5 m/s

2and

5 m/s2 for hand-arm vibration and 0,5 m/s2 and 1,15 m/s2 for whole-body vibration.In this latter case, hence, the vibration dose value has not been chosen.

With regard to the transitional periods, the Italian legislator has chosen to make

use of the maximum transitional period for the obligations laid down in the Article

5(3) of Directive: five years from 6 July 2005 for work equipment given to workers




670

before 6 July 2007 which does not permit the exposure limits to be respected; nine

years from 6 July 2005 for equipment used in the agriculture and forestry sectors

which does not permit the exposure limits to be respected.

At last, according to Article 10(1) of Directive, in the case of sea and air trans-

port employers can derogate, in duly justified circumstances, to the respect of the

exposure limit to whole-body vibration. Such derogations are granted by LocalHealth Services for a maximum period of four years and withdrawn as soon as the

justifying circumstances no longer hold.

4. National policy aimed at assist employers to comply with the Directive

The ISPESL and the Technical Committee for Occupational Safety and Health

of the Regions and the Autonomous Provinces has released already in 2001 the firstnational guidelines concerning the risk assessment and vibration management at

workplaces. The guidelines, realized taking into account the (at that time) advanced

proposal for a EU vibration directive, have aroused the general interest and appre-

ciation of all the public and private subjects who operate in vast field of prevention.

Additional guidelines have been released in 2003 by the Italian Society of Oc-

cupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene aimed at assisting doctors to ensure ap-

propriate health surveillance of workers exposed to mechanical vibration.

Despite mechanical vibrations are a traditional physical risk factor and the re-

lease of the fore mentioned guidelines, in Italy there is still a low awareness of this

risk factor among employers and a lack of competent services and technicians able

to carry out effective and reliable assessment and measurement of such levels of

mechanical vibration. Hence, the Legislative Decree 187/05 allows employers to

use, as sources of information on vibration magnitudes data, the manufacturer’semission data and national databases established by the National Institute of Occu-

pational Safety and Prevention (ISPESL), the National Research Council (CNR) and

the Regions. At present, only the ISPESL’s database exists, which has become the

centralized Italian database which supports the Legislative Decree 187/05 for risk

assessment purposes [6].

5. Dissemination of the provisions of the Directive among employers

At present the Italian firms are mainly engaged to comply with the first duty set

by Article 4 of legislative Decree 187/05: the determination and assessment of risk.Here we present the first data of the state of application of this task among the

crafts and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In Italy a total of 1,5 mil-

lions of small enterprises are counted, most of them belonging to sectors affected by

the Directive 2002/44/EC, notably construction, wood and metalwork industries andrelated professions such as milling and shaping and furniture-makers, glass-manu-

facture, car mechanics and producers of spare parts, road transport, timber yards and joineries. These enterprises have some real difficulties to comply with the legal ob-

ligations set by the Legislative Decree 187/05, which do not appear to take adequate

account of the specificity of small enterprises, and of the wide range of artisan, craft

and trade activities, many of them involving skilled workers, whose perspectives are



Bologna (Italy), 3-7 June 2007

671

affected by the vibration Directive. These difficulties are related also to the above

mentioned lack of competent services and technicians able to carry out effective and

reliable assessment and measurement of mechanical vibration levels to which work-

ers are exposed.

According to a preliminary national survey carried out by the Confartigianato,

one of the two main National Confederations of Crafts and Small and Medium-SizedEnterprises, about 300.000 partner enterprises supervised by their health and safety

competent services are affected by the Legislative Decree 187/05, corresponding to

the half of their enrolled partners. At present about half of them have carried out or

are going to carry out risk assessment, with an incidence of about 10% over the total

number of SMEs existing in Italy.

This incidence seems to be slightly over estimated, as the results of a survey re-alized in the Province of Modena by a local representative of SMEs indicate an inci-

dence of 5,6% enterprises over a total of 60.000 officially enrolled which have as-

sessed the levels of mechanical vibration to which their workers are exposed.

An other local survey, performed by the CNA, the other main National Confed-

eration of Crafts and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, in the city of Rome

among the about 3.000 car mechanic partner enterprises, confirms the result of Mo-

dena.

6. Conclusions

More than 90% of the Italian productive structure is made up of micro, small

and medium-sized enterprises (defined as enterprises which employ, respectively,

less than 10, 50 and 250 persons), which have some real difficulties to comply with

the legal obligations set by the complex legislation concerning safety and health atwork, and in particular by the Legislative Decree 187/05, which do not appear to

take adequate account of the specificity of micro and small enterprises.

In fact, owing to the small number of employees available to operate the ma-

chinery and the financial cost of investing in new machinery, SMEs face a particular

problems in terms of limiting the duration and magnitude of exposure to vibrations.

As a consequence, SMEs should be the subject of specific measures in terms of in-

formation, awareness and risk prevention programmes.

More in general, the low degree of compliance with the vibration Directive

2002/44/EC in Italy can be explained with some difficulties still existing concerningthe consolidation of a culture of risk prevention, the combination of a variety of po-

litical instruments – legislation, social dialogue, progressive measures and best prac-

tices, corporate social responsibility and economic incentives – and the building of a

partnership between all the players of the safety and health scene.At last, the health and safety inspectorate activities, exerted in Italy by the Local

Health Services known as A.S.L. (Azienda Sanitaria Locale), might be able to com-bine their inspection and vigilance role with a prevention function, enhancing the as-

sistance and information activity addressed to the firms before eventual sanctions af-

ter inspection activities, which have to be uniform, dissuasive, proportionate and ef-

fective.




672

Acknowledgements

The helpful assistance from Giorgio Russomanno (Confartigianato) and Giorgio

Bollini (CNA) is gratefully acknowledged.

References

[1] A. Parent-Thirion, E. Fernández Macías, J. Hurley, G. Vermeylen, “FourthEuropean survey on working conditions 2005”, European Foundation for the

Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, Dublin (Ireland)

[2] Directive 2002/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25

June 2002 on the minimum health and safety requirements regarding the expo-

sure of workers to the risks arising from physical agents (vibration) (sixteenthindividual Directive within the meaning of Article 16(1) of Directive

89/391/EEC), Official Journal of the European Communities L 177/13,

6.7.2002

[3] Legislative Decree 19 August 2005 n. 187, Official Journal of Italian Republicn. 220, 21.9.2005

[4] Eurostat, “Occupational Diseases in Europe in 2001”, Luxembourg 2004

[5] A. Bucciarelli, “Le malattie professionali da agenti fisici in Italia”, in Procee-dings of the Conference dBA2006 Rischi fisici negli ambienti di lavoro, Mode-

na 2006

[6] P. Nataletti, E. Marchetti, A. Lunghi, I. Pinto, N. Stacchini, F. Santini “TheItalian HAV database on the Internet”, in Proceedings of the 11th International

Conference on Hand-Arm Vibration, Bologna 2007

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