Sounds like a way for them to pretend to be cautious and safe, relative to the west. How seriously do they take these "limits"?
All of western movie history would have us believe that there's the official limit on paper, and then there's the real limit in practice that Grigori, the underfed, overtired engineer-who-probably-shouldn't-be-smoking-around-all-that-stuff, actually has to work with.
The current situation makes that stereotype seem more and more plausible by the day.
Makes no sense in country where occupational safety does not exist anyway. Source: born there, seen that.
Don't extrapolate your own experience to everything else. I've seen quite opposite.
except the swiss (non EU i know). they also have lower limits than most.