MRI SCANNERS SAVED BY EU U-TURN

10.28.00pm GMT Tue 19th Feb 2008

The European Parliament today approved a request by the European Commission to postpone and review a controversial health and safety directive on electro magnetic fields which would have restricted the use of Europe's high-tech MRI scanners, used to detect early signs of cancer amongst other things.

Local Liberal Democrat MEP Liz Lynne, Vice President of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee, had campaigned hard for a postponement of the directive after outcries from leading scientists and experts across the European Union.

Liz today expressed relief after the Parliament's vote:

"The decision to postpone the implementation of this directive is a victory for common sense. Health and safety legislation must be based on the latest medical and scientific advice. The medical profession's evidence has always been against restricting MRI scanner use, which is why I campaigned to have them left out of the directive in the first place.

"These machines are vital life-savers and have been used safely for 25 years. Limiting their use would have been a backward step in patient car and may lead to an over reliance on the use of technologies with proven health risks, such as X-Rays.

"The guidelines imposed by the directive are unnecessary and overcautious. MRI scanners pose no known health risks, and medical staff are already protected under the Medical Devices Directive. I hope a four-year delay will give experts the time to prove this.

"It is vital that the Commission now urges countries that have already transposed the legislation to repeal it at once to ensure that MRI use is not restricted in any EU Member State as a result of this badly drafted directive."