New Ministerial Order on Exposure to Biological Agents at Work
The Official State Gazette has published on November 25 the Order TES/1287/2021 of November 22, which adapts Royal Decree 664/1997 of May 12, on the protection of workers against risks related to technical progress. exposure to biological agents during work.
This matter was incorporated into Spanish law through Royal Decree 664/1997, which established the minimum provisions applicable to activities in which workers are or may be exposed to biological agents due to the nature of their work activity. Subsequently, European and national regulations have been published that have modified annexes and aspects with adaptations of a strictly technical nature.
The order that is now published has the objective of transposing the European Directive of 2019 and the adaptation to technical progress of Royal Decree 664/1997, which will modify the current annexes I and II of the latter, in order to adjust its content to that of the annexes of the directive.
Regarding the modification of Annex I, the directive now being transposed considers that, since the results of the risk assessment may show unintentional exposure to biological agents, there could be other activities not included in Annex I of Directive 2000/54/EC that must also be taken into consideration. Therefore, the indicative list of activities set out in Annex I to the aforementioned Directive has been amended by adding an introductory sentence to clarify the non-exhaustive nature of the list. The same modification must be made in Annex I of Royal Decree 664/1997.
With regard to Annex III of Directive 2000/54/EC containing the list of biological agents that are known human pathogens classified according to the level of risk of infection they present, and in line with introductory note 6 of the aforementioned annex, the list has been modified in order to reflect the most recent state of knowledge with regard to scientific advances that have led to important changes since the last update of the list, especially with regard to taxonomy, nomenclature, classification and characteristics of biological agents and the existence of new biological agents. The same modification must be carried out in Annex II of Royal Decree 664/1997.
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