EU garages must have new pumps installed within six years to ensure that cancer causing benzene, released into the air from petrol, does not threaten workers' health.
A new directive strengthening controls on carcinogens in the workplace will reduce exposure of workers to benzene to three parts per million within three years, and one part per million in six. The move will also benefit workers in the oil and petrol distribution business.
Other provisions in the directive strengthen protection for workers in hospitals and factories who handle or produce cancer drugs.
Agreement on the measure, which was not expected at yesterday's meeting of EU Social Affairs Ministers, was strongly welcomed by the Minister of State for Enterprise and Employment, Ms Eithne Fitzgerald. Ms Fitzgerald said workplace cancers kill some 40,000 people a year in the EU.
The meeting saw the final adoption of the posted workers' directive giving workers who travel to work in other EU states the same social protection as those in their host country.
Meanwhile, the Minister for Equality and Law Reform, Mr Taylor, won broad support for an Irish initiative on "mainstreaming" equality issues in the allocation of all structural funds.
Allocations will now have to be checked to see if issues such as child care provision and the travel needs of rural women are taken into account in planning projects.
The EU Commissioner for Social Affairs, Mr Padraig Flynn announced two initiatives discussions with the social partners on new procedures for consultation with and information for workers in firms with more than 50 workers, and work on a new directive on equal work opportunities for people with disabilities.
