No thanks, Sunshine!

My regular reader knows that I have certain reservations about the European Union. This article details another example of attempts by the EU to impose The Nanny State. Apparently, there was a proposal that employers should be made responsible for their employees’ exposure to sunlight!

Opponents have pointed out that this legislation might have lead to barmaids avoiding wearing low cut blouses, which seemed, self-evidently, to be a bad thing. It might also have lead to builders wearing shirts (so what?), and covering their bum-cleavage: actually a good thing. Nobody appears to have considered the potentially disastrous effects on the pornography industry!

Fortunately, it appears that the proposal has been defeated, at least for now, and we hopefully won't have to live with the consequences of another wacky idea from Brussels. Reducing the increase in melanoma would be nice, but surely this falls into the area of individual responsibility? People who have higher occupational exposure should be educated about the effects of sunlight, and encouraged to take steps to reduce their exposure, but employers have enough red tape to grapple with without being held responsible for this as well.