WRITTEN QUESTION No. 127/98 by Eryl McNALLY to the Commission. Council Directive 96/29/Euratom, Article 3 paragraph 2(a), (b) and (f) and Article 5 paragraph 2
Date: 1998-01-22
Institutions: European Parliament, MCNALLY
Subjects: food contamination, food inspection, ionising radiation, meat product, public health, radiation protection, radioactive effluent, radioactive materials, radioactive pollution, radioactivity

17. 7. 98

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 223/119

(98/C 223/152)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-0127/98

by Eryl McNally (PSE) to the Commission

(22 January 1998)

Subject: Council Directive 96/29/Euratom, Article 3 paragraph 2(a), (b) and (f) and Article 5 paragraph 2

I would like to draw the Commission(cid:146)s attention to the Council Directive 96/29/Euratom (1), Article 3 paragraph
2(a), (b) and (f) and Article 5 paragraph 2, concerning the reporting and authorization of practices with regard to
ionizing  radiation.  The  new  threshold  for  Caesium-137  below  which  reporting  is  not  necessary  is  now
10 000 Bq/kg.

Given that considerably lower levels of radioactive substances have, in the past, led to affected meat products
being banned and have been implicated in cases of leukaemia clusters, does the Commission not believe that the
limits set out in Council Directive 96/29/Euratom are, in fact, too lax? Can the Commission explain how the
Council justifies the limits set and the provisions made in the Articles mentioned above?

(1)  OJ L 159, 29.6.1996, p. 1.

Answer given by Mrs Bjerregaard on behalf of the Commission

(20 February 1998)

Article 3.2 of the basic safety standards for the health protection of the general public and workers against the
dangers of ionising radiation (96/29/Euratom) refers to exemption levels in terms of total activity and activity
concentration  below  which  practices  need  not  be  reported.  In  terms  of  activity  concentration  the  list  of
nuclide-specific  values  replaces  the  single  value  of  100  Bq/g  for  artificial  radionuclides  laid  down  in  earlier
directives (Council Directive 80/836/Euratom as amended by Council Directive 84/467/Euratom of 3 September
1984 amending Directive 80/836/Euratom as regards the basic safety standards for the health protection of the
general public and workers against the dangers of ionizing radiation (1)). In the case of caesium-137 as for a large
number of other important radionuclides the exemption value is now indeed 10 Bq/g (i.e. 10 000 Bq/kg), which is
more restrictive by a factor of ten.

Lower levels of radioactivity were specified for meat and other foodstuffs in the case of radiological emergency
(Council  Regulations  90/737/EEC  of  22  March  1990  on  the  conditions  governing  imports  of  agricultural
products originating in third countries following the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power station (2) in the
context  of  the  accident  at  Chernobyl  and  87/3954/Euratom  of  22  December  1987  laying  down  maximum
permitted levels of radioactive contamination of foodstuffs and of feedingstuffs following a nuclear accident or
any  other  case  of  radiological  emergency (3)  in  any  other  case  of  radiological  emergency).  In  the  case  of
radiological  emergency,  the  criteria  adopted  covered  the  situation  in  which  foodstuffs  might  become
contaminated  and  members  of  the  public  would  receive  doses  internally  over  a  long  period  as  a  result  of
ingesting  radioactivity  in  foodstuffs.  It  is  for  that  reason  it  is  necessary  to  have  lower  reference  values  for
foodstuffs.

Exemption  levels  pertain  to  the  administrative  requirement  of  reporting  a  practice  involving  radioactive
substances  and  the  values  were  derived  on  the  basis  of  a  range  of  scenarios  which  considered  occasional
inadvertent  ingestion  but  not  protracted  ingestion.  Exemption  from  such  reporting  does  not  imply  that  other
relevant requirements of the basic safety standards or other legislation are not applicable. Indeed, the deliberate
addition of radioactive substances in the production of foodstuffs is prohibited (Article 6.5), irrespective of the
resulting contamination level.

(1)  OJ L 265, 5.10.1984.
(2)  OJ L 82, 29. 3.1990.
(3)  OJ L 371, 30.12.1987.