How to ensure occupational health and safety in the workplace (OSH)?
Employers must protect their workers from any harm, including from chemical risks. Ensuring occupational health and safety is a complex task for businesses that requires several competences. Companies are recommended to appoint an OSH manager responsible for ensuring that all legal requirements are implemented properly, effectively and efficiently.
What are the benefits of OSH management?
Effective OSH management increases the assurance of workers and supports responsible behaviour, leading to fewer accidents and incidents and reducing the severity of consequences when they do occur. It also serves to maintain a healthier workforce, resulting in fewer absences from work due to work‑related sickness or illness. Since employees are a key factor in successful production, preventing risks including those from chemicals is not only an ethical responsibility, but also a clear economic advantage.
Occupational health and safety (OSH) management consists of:
What are the legal requirements?
Estonia
Regulation of Government No. 105 of 20.03.2001, including occupational exposure limit values of chemical danger factors.
Latvia
Cabinet Regulations regarding normal exposure during the working day and exposure for a short time.
Lithuania
Poland
- Rozporządzenie Ministra Rodziny, Pracy i Polityki Społecznej z dnia12 czerwca 2018 r. w sprawie najwyższych dopuszczalnych stężeń inatężeń czynników szkodliwych dla zdrowia w środowisku pracy (Dz.U. poz. 1286, 2018);
- Rozporządzenie Ministra Rodziny, Pracy i Polityki Społecznej z dnia 9 stycznia 2020 r. zmieniające rozporządzenie w sprawie najwyższych dopuszczalnych stężeń i natężeń czynników szkodliwych dla zdrowia w środowisku pracy (Dz.U. poz. 61, 2020);
- Rozporządzenie Ministra Rozwoju, Pracy i Technologii z dnia 18 lutego 2021 r. zmieniające rozporządzenie w sprawie najwyższych dopuszczalnych stężeń i natężeń czynników szkodliwych dla zdrowia w środowisku pracy (Dz. U. poz. 325, 2021);
- Rozporządzenie Ministra Rodziny i Polityki Społecznej z dnia 18 sierpnia 2023 r. zmieniające rozporządzenie w sprawie najwyższych dopuszczalnych stężeń i natężeń czynników szkodliwych dla zdrowia w środowisku pracy (Dz. U. poz. 1661, 2023).
Regarding chemicals, employers must:
The term “chemical agents” not only includes chemicals that are intentionally used in workplaces, but also chemicals that may be formed during the work process from sources such as welding fumes.
How can risks be assessed?
The risk assessment at workplaces is a crucial step as it reveals if, and to what extent, workers are at risk from chemicals at the workplace. It is the information basis upon which risk management measures are identified.
Risk assessment steps:
Definition/description of the workplace
It is important to clearly define the location of the workplace and the activities carried out there, because this determines the scope of the risk assessment. If a worker operates in three different locations, each location requires its own risk assessment, because the assessment applies to the workplace—not the worker. A single workplace may include several activities; each should be briefly described with a focus on potential sources of chemical exposure.
Identification of all chemical agents and their quantities
All chemicals used or potentially formed in the workplace should be listed in order to provide a complete overview of workers’ exposure. While the chemical inventory is a key information source, input from workers themselves is also essential.
Assessment of hazards
The hazards of all relevant chemicals at a workplace should be identified using information from SDSs. For substances generated on site, such as welding fumes, additional information should be obtained from the relevant literature or suppliers. Chemicals that are not classified as hazardous can be excluded from further assessment.
Chemicals should then be grouped according to their exposure pathways. Some substances (or mixtures) may be hazardous through skin contact, inhalation, or both. Chemicals that pose a risk through oral exposure only can be excluded from further assessment (see section “How to identify and classify hazards”).
Assessment of potential exposures
Dermal contact: usually the duration of contact and the potentially exposed area of the skin are identified (based on the use of personal protective equipment). A semi-quantitative assessment of exposure is performed, resulting in conclusions about whether (more) measures are needed for better skin protection.
Inhalation: There are two options to identify exposure levels via inhalation:
- Measurements may be the best option to demonstrate compliance with OELs and must be carried out in a situation that is representative for the workplace.
- Exposure models for workplace air if many different substances are used. Different models are available that derive air concentrations based on the room volume, air exchange rate, temperature, substance properties and estimations of the amounts emitted from the process(es) at the workplace.
Conclusion on risk
The effect thresholds (OELs or derived no effect levels (DNELs)) are compared with the modelled or measured exposure level.
Dermal risks: Oftentimes the risk assessment is not quantified, either because quantitative effect thresholds are missing or because it is rather obvious that dermal risks exist in a workplace or not and what preventive measures are needed.
Inhalation risks: To identify risks, the exposure levels are compared to the effect thresholds; long term and acute exposures must be differentiated. If the quotient of exposure and effect threshold exceeds the value of 1, workers are at risk.
The risk assessment should be documented and kept available for potential inspections. It should be reviewed in the event that conditions at the workplace change, i.e. if new chemicals are used (changes in hazard and exposure), if the classification of a chemical changes (changes in hazard) and/or if the way a process is conducted changes (changes in emitted amounts and exposure potentials).
What are risk management measures?
OSH legislation requires employers to follow the hierarchy of measures, also called the “STOP principle”:
Substitution
Substitution is the replacement of hazardous chemicals with less hazardous alternatives, which could be other chemicals, changes in process design or the product itself, or the use of different materials, etc.
Substitution eliminates the hazard and, therefore, it addresses the risk at source (no hazard – no risk) and has impacts throughout the lifecycle (no emissions, no exposures). (See section “How to substitute hazardous chemicals”)
Technical measures
Technical controls aim to prevent human or environmental exposure to hazardous substances. They include technical measures that eliminate or reduce emissions from a process. These controls may also improve resource efficiency by reducing material losses, but it should be kept in mind that this is not always the case in practice.
Examples of technical measures:
- Automatic dosage systems feeding chemicals into processes or enclosure/ housing in of processes: prevent emissions from the process into the workplace air and workers from coming into contact with any chemicals used.
- Automation of manual processes, e.g. changing from manual cleaning of parts to cleaning in immersion baths or using industrial cleaning equipment. This reduces the possibilities of chemicals coming into contact with skin and air emissions of chemicals during the cleaning process.
- Local exhaust ventilation: emissions from the process are removed from the workplace and, hence, worker exposure is reduced.
- General ventilation: this control is the weakest, but still leads to the removal of substances from workplace air via an increased air exchange rate.
Organisational measures
Organisational measures include any measure that concerns the design of a process and the organisation of a workplace in regard to the location, tools and (number of) workers active at one workplace.
Examples of organisation measures are:
- changing the sequence of processing steps, which may eliminate the need to use chemicals or reduce their usage volumes.
- reducing the number of workers working in close proximity to a workplace where chemicals are used; for example, the lacquering booth should not be located next to the break room or bathrooms, because of the likelihood that many workers will pass by the lacquering booth who have no direct connection to the work done there, thus potentially exposing them to vapours of lacquer or solvent emissions (reducing “by-stander” exposure);
- optimising the workplace design to reduce safety risks and ensure a smooth work process.
- reducing the frequency of cleaning by organising product orders: if a product is supplied in different colours, changing the sequence from bright to dark colours or producing larger batches of the same colour (and storing the products) would reduce the need to clean the painting equipment, and hence reduce the frequency with which workers have to conduct this (manual) task.
- improving logistics and avoid long storage of (wet) materials, thus minimising the need to use preservatives or fungicides to protect materials from moulding or a deterioration of their quality.
- reducing the working time of exposed workers by involving more workers for shorter time periods (thus reducing the overall exposure per worker);
- note that while this measure reduces individual exposures, which may well prevent acute effects, it does not reduce the overall exposure potential of workers.
Personal protective equipment
The use of personal protective equipment (PPE) reduces exposure by “enclosing the worker” and leaving the chemicals “outside”. Examples of personal protective equipment are gloves, overalls, goggles, face masks and filters, and safety shoes.
Select PPE with care to ensure that it is effective against the chemical(s) in question. The suppliers’ SDSs should include recommendations regarding the types of PPE that can be used for their product. If several chemicals are used, the selection of PPE may become more complex and require more expertise.
As PPE are uncomfortable to wear, they should be used only if no other protective measures can be applied. While SDSs may include information about what equipment to select, this must be checked, in particular when more than one chemical is used.
Why is chemical safety training critical?
Informing workers about chemical risks and providing regular training in safe handling are essential parts of effective OSH management. Trained employees can work safely, prevent incidents, and respond correctly when accidents occur.
All workers who handle chemicals should receive regular general training covering chemical hazards, understanding classification and labelling, and how to use SDSs. Workers operating in high-risk workplaces or handling highly hazardous chemicals require additional, workplace-specific training in best practices. Certain substances, such as isocyanates, are subject to legal requirements—REACH restrictions stipulate participation in specific safety training.
- Ensure that workers have easy access to clear information about the chemicals they use.
- Provide workplace instructions or “safety cards” summarising tasks, hazards, and safe handling requirements.
- All chemical containers must be clearly labelled in accordance with classification and labelling rules.
Using PPE and following safe-handling procedures may require extra effort, so training should emphasise the importance and benefits of compliance. At the same time, workplaces should monitor whether safety measures are followed and impose penalties in circumstances where workers repeatedly ignore instructions.
Training activities must be documented, and a training plan should be developed, implemented, and regularly updated to ensure consistent training and that no worker remains untrained.