USE OF CHEMICALS AT THE WORKPLACE

The use of chemicals at the workplace is of concern to all; the government, employers and employees, as they may pose hazardous to health in a number of ways. They may cause fires and explosion, adverse health effects and/or damage to the environment.

The term use of chemicals hazardous to health has been used to mean the ‘production, handling, storage, transport, disposal and treatment of any chemicals that have the potential to cause adverse health effects’. Adverse health effects refer to effects that cause changes in the morphology, growth, development or life span of an organism and which results in the impairment of the functional capacity or ability of the organism to maintain homeostasis or those that do not enchance susceptibility to deleterious effects of other environmental factors. In short, the spectrum of adverse health effects range from discomfort or irritation at one end to death at the other.

The risk of fire and explosion has somewhat been addressed by certain legislations such as the OSH Act, while environmental protection comes under the purview of the Department of Environment. However, there is currently no specific legislation to control the use of hazardous chemicals at any place of work to ensure that the users, mainly industrial workers and the self-employed, are not adversely affected.

The OSH Act 1994 provide for the protection of employees handling hazardous chemicals in a general way. Section 15 of the OSH Act stipulated the general duties of employers and self-employed persons to ensure the safety, health and welfare of employees at the workplace. This duty includes making arrangements for ensuring safety as well as absence of health hazards and risks in connection with the use, operation, handling, storage and transport of hazardous substances.

These arrangements are general in nature and therefore require further elaboration and clarification by a more specific regulation on chemicals that will lay down the principles and practices to safeguard the health and safety of workers dealing with chemical substances. Hence, a set of regulations was promulgated under section 66 of the OSH Act solely addressing the issue of safety and health in the use and handling of chemicals that are hazardous to health at the workplace. This legislation is called the Occupational Safety and Health (Use and Standard of Exposure of Chemicals Hazardous to Health) Regulations 2000 or in short, OSH-USECHH Regulations.

APPLICTION

The OSH-USECHH Regulations is applicable to all places of work within the purview of the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 where chemicals hazardous to health are used. These include work in the following economic sectors:-

a) Manufacturing;
b) Quarrying and mining;
c) Construction;
d) Agriculture, forestry and fishing;
e) Utilities;
f) Transport, storage and communication;
g) Wholesale and retail trade;
h) Hotels and restaurants;
i) Finance, insurance, real estate and business services; and
j) Public services and statutory authorities.

However, certain places of work are excluded if the chemical substances used are:

a) Radioactive materials;
b) Foodstuff;
c) Pharmaceutical products; or
d) hazardous to health solely by virtue of their explosive or flammable properties, or solely because they are at a high temperature or pressure (e.g. water).

SALIENT PROVISIONS

Among the salient provisions of the Regulations are:

a) Identification of hazardous chemicals at the workplace and the establishment and maintenance of a chemical register;
b) Compliance with permissible exposure limits;
c) Chemical health risk assessment for employees;
d) Introduction of appropriate measures to prevent or control significant health risks;
e) Ensuring the use and maintenance of control measures and procedures;
f) Labelling and re-labelling of containers;
g) Awareness through information, instruction and training of employees on the health risks and precautions to be taken at the workplace;
h) Where necessary, monitor the exposure of employees and carry out the appropriate form of health surveillance;
i) Medical Removal Protection;
j) Warning signs; and
k) Record keeping.

INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE: RELATED ACTS AND REGULATIONS

1. Factories and Machinery (Lead) Regulations 1984
2. Factories and Machinery (Asbestos Process) Regulations 1986
3. Factories and Machinery (Mineral Dust) Regulations 1989
4. Factories and Machinery (Noise Exposure) Regulations 1989
5. Occupational Safety and Health (Use and Standards of Exposure of Chemicals Hazardous to Health) Regulations 2000
6. Occupational Safety and Health (Classification, Packaging and Labelling of Hazardous Chemicals) Regulations 1997.

HV fatal

HIRARC Risk Management Terms

RISK MANAGEMENT TERMS

1.HAZARD
2.RISK
3.DANGER
4.PROBABILITY
5.SEVERITY
6.RISK ASSESSMENT
7.RISK MANAGEMENT
8.GAMBLING

HAZARD

A condition with the potential for causing injury, damage, or mission degradation

What is a hazard?
A hazard is any activity, situation or substance that can cause harm. Occupational hazards are divided into two broad categories:

1. health hazards, and

2. safety hazards

Generally, health hazards cause occupational illnesses, such as noise induced hearing loss. Safety hazards cause physical harm, such as cuts, broken bones and so forth. Hazards exist in all workplaces.

RISK
An expression of possible loss in terms of severity and probability

DANGER
Exposure or vulnerability to harm or risk or a source or an instance of risk or peril.

Inter-relationship between hazard, risk and danger can be understand more with the following example;
Concentrated Hydrochloric acid is one of the most chemical hazard because of the intrinsic corrosive factor, which can harmful to health and some materials. High risk to the worker works with this acid without face shield. It is danger to use mouth to draw HCL into a pipette.

PROBABILITY
What is probability?
Probability is the chance that a hazard will cause harm. In risk management systems, probability is often categorized as:

1.frequent (workers are frequently at risk)
2.probable (the hazard is likely to cause harm)
3.occasional (workers are occasionally at risk)
4.remote (the hazard could cause harm, but is very unlikely to do so)
5.improbable (the hazard is unlikely to ever cause harm)

SEVERITY

What is severity?
Severity is the seriousness of the harm that could result from contact with a hazard. It is described as:

1.catastrophic (death and/or severe destruction)
2.critical (serious injury and/or property damage)

3.marginal (minor injury and/or property damage)

RISK ASSESSMENT

Using sound concepts to detect HAZARDS and estimate the risk they pose.

OPERATIONAL RISK MANAGEMENT

The process of dealing with risk associated with risk operations, which includes;

1.Risk Assessment,
2.Risk Decision Making
3.Implementation of Risk Controls.

RISK MANAGEMENT PROCESS

1.Identify Hazards
2.Assess Hazards
3.Make Risk Decisions
4.Implement Controls
5.Supervise

RISK MANAGEMENT RULES

1.Integrate into planning
2.Accept no unnecessary risks
3.Make risk decisions at the proper level
4.Accept risk if benefits
5.Outweigh the cost

MAKE RISK DECISIONS

1.Consider Risk Control Options
i.Start with Most Serious Risk First
ii.Refer to preliminary Hazard Analysis Causes
2.Does Benefit Outweigh Risk
3.Communicate with Higher Authority, if Required

GAMBLING

Making risk decisions without reasonable or prudent assessment or management of the risk involved

SUMMARY

Risk management is a systematic way of thinking.
The risk management process increases awareness of hazards and risks involved in an operation