Liz Lynne calls on Commission to review directive on MRI scanners

4.02.23pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 28th Sep 2005

During the statement on the withdrawal of legislation by the Commission yesterday in the European Parliament, Liz Lynne former Shadow Rapporteur on the Electromagnetic Fields Directive for the Liberal Group asked the Commission to look at this directive again.

Speaking in Strasbourg today she said,

"When this directive was going through the European Parliament last year, I tried to have MRI scanners left out of the remit of the directive. Unfortunately, I did not have support from the majority of other MEPs, the Commission or the Council of Ministers including Patricia Hewitt who was then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.

"The evidence then, as now, was overwhelmingly from the medical profession that if MRI scanners were not excluded it would seriously damage the use of this state of the art technology and would lead to the use of more dangerous procedures.

"I argued then that workers were already protected under the Medical Devices Directive and that is still true.

"The Commission must take this opportunity to look at this directive again, if they don't medical diagnostic advances could be set back within the European Union, probably never to recover."

ENDS.