"PROPOSED MRI LEGISLATION MUST BE AMENDED OR LIVES WILL BE AT RISK" - LYNNE

10.21.06am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 14th Jun 2007

West Midlands Euro-MP Liz Lynne has stressed the need for a rethink of the proposed European Union Directive on Electro Magnetic Fields which could impose unintended restrictions on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, used to diagnose illnesses.

The directive, which could become law as soon as April 2008, limits the amount of time staff can be exposed to electromagnetic fields in the workplace. It is estimated that it could affect up to eight million MRI examinations across Europe, including 400,000 procedures involving children and the seriously ill and 80,000 people under anaesthesia.*

Speaking today after the launch of the Crozier report, which provides further evidence of what Liz has consistently argued, i.e. that Directive 2004/40/EC, seriously endangers the continued use of MRI scanning equipment and as such will endanger the lives of patients, Liz said:

"While there are positive aspects to this proposal, it must be halted in its current form until an existing European Commission impact assessment has been completed. I was encouraged that the European Commission was sympathetic to this view."

"A delay will give us enough time to digest the results of this new report and the upcoming impact assessment and amend this legislation, providing for special allowances for MRI procedures, which have now been safely in use for 25 years."

ENDS

Notes to editors:

The Crozier report, launched today, demonstrates that changes to existing practice would not be sufficient to comply with Directive 2004/40/EC and as such the use of current equipment and procedure would need to stop. Operatives would need to remain at least one metre from the equipment during use. It thus shows that if MRI procedures are to continue, modification of this Directive is urgently needed before it comes into force.

Liz Lynne is a leading campaigner in the Alliance for MRI, a group comprising patients' groups, medical experts and politicians across Europe which is urging amendment of EU Directive 2004/40/EC.

Liz Lynne was shadow for the Electro Magnetic Fields Directive for the wider Liberal and Democrat Group in the European Parliament and worked hard at the time this directive went through the Parliament to exclude medical devices and static magnetic fields from its scope but without the political support of Socialist or Conservative MEPs.

Last year Liz Lynne gave evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee on the use of scientific evidence in their review of the Electromagnetic Fields Directive. The House of Commons report critised the European Commission's use of scientific evidence.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmsctech/1654/1654.pdf

Liz Lynne has tabled a number of parliamentary questions to the European Commission asking them to consider an amendment to the 2004 Electro Magnetic Fields Directive as well as holding meetings with Commissioner Spidla to discuss the issue and speaking on the issue in debates in the European Parliament since 2005.

*Figures from Gabriel Krestin, Professor of Radiology at Erasmus University, Rotterdam