Chemical Safety and Health Issues

Introduction to Chemical Safety

• Importance of Chemicals

  • Estimated 1 million new chemicals enter the market every year.

  • 137 million chemical substances are currently used across various industries (as of 2018).

  • Potential for adverse health effects on humans and environmental damage.

  • Importance of environmentally sound management of hazardous chemicals.

Chemical Hazard Overview

• Definition of Chemical Hazards:

  • Substances that can cause bodily harm, disease, illness, or death.

  • Includes effects on behavior and mental alertness (e.g., asbestos, metal oxides, mercury, and mineral oil).

• Types of Hazardous Chemicals:

  • Chemical Types:

  • Inorganic (e.g., metals, salts)

  • Organic (e.g., aliphatic compounds, aromatic compounds, and aromatic compounds)

  • Physical States:

  • Solids, liquids, gases, vapors, fumes, mists, dust.

Pathways of Chemical Entry

• Chemicals enter the human body through:

  • Inhalation

  • Ingestion

  • Skin contact

Chemical Safety Measures

• General Safety Guidelines:

  • Assume unfamiliar chemicals are hazardous.

  • Never use unlabeled substances.

  • Mixtures may be as hazardous as the most dangerous component.

  • Follow safety rules and use common sense.

Policy and Strategy for Chemical Safety

• Safety Policy:

  • Clear organizational safety and health policy is essential.

  • Should demonstrate management commitment to a safe working environment.

• Safety Strategy:

  • Establish guidelines for control requirements and ensure policy implementation.

Management of Chemical Safety

• Components for Chemical Safety:

  • Purchasing procedures, medical surveillance, hazard identification, training, and hazard communication are included.

• Purchasing and Specification

  • Critical control point.

  • Always check for compliance.

  • Purchasing must comply with HSE requirements (labeling, SDS, packaging, delivery schedule, and banned substances)

• Identification Of Chemicals

  • Identify Chemical Hazards to Health (CHTH)

  • Record all CHTH used in a register

  • Maintain the register in good order and condition, and be

    updated

  • Make the register accessible to all employees

  • A chemical register must be prepared according to the

    relevant regulations and guidelines:

    • Guideline for the Preparation of a Chemical Register, 2000

    • OSH (Use And Standard of Exposure of Chemical Hazardous to Health)

      Regulations, 2000– USECHH Reg. 2000

    • OSH (Classification, Labelling and Safety Data Sheet of

      HazardousChemicals) Regulations, 2013– CLASS Reg. 2013

    • Pesticide Act, 1974

    • EQA (Schedule Waste) Regulations, 2005– SW Reg. 2005

• Assessment:

  • CHRA must be conducted whenever CHTH is used in the workplace, covering all activities involving these chemicals.

  • Reassessments are required after significant changes in work processes or every five years to ensure ongoing safety.

  • The assessment must be directed by authorized personnel such as the director or deputy director general.

• Control Measures:

  • Emphasizes elimination, substitution, and engineering controls to mitigate risks.

• Exposure Monitoring

  • Implement a monitoring program to evaluate workers' exposure to CHTH through air or biological monitoring.

  • Monitoring must comply with USECHH Regulations, 2000, and be conducted by authorized personnel.

  • The results of monitoring should inform the adequacy of existing control measures and guide future actions.

• Medical Surveillance

  • Conduct periodic health monitoring of workers to assess the effects of chemical exposure and the effectiveness of control measures.

  • Medical records must be kept confidential and managed by registered Occupational Health Doctors (OHD).

  • The frequency of health checks should not exceed twelve months unless otherwise determined by the OHD.

Employee Training and Communication

• Provide training on:

  • Health risks from chemical exposure.

  • Safety precautions and results from monitoring exposure.

• Establish communication channels for effective information exchange between management and employees.

Emergency Preparedness

• Emergency, First Aid & Welfare Facilities

  • Measures taken to handle emergencies

  • Enough personnel trained

  • Fire protection

  • First aid facilities

  • Emergency Eyewash and showers

  • Spill control kits and equipment

Incident Investigation

• Importance of investigating accidents to understand hazards and prevent similar occurrences in the future.

Record Keeping

• Importance of Records:

  • Essential for compliance with safety regulations.

  • Records of chemical risk assessments, training programs, and health surveillance must be maintained and organized.

  • Specify retention periods for different records (e.g., CHRA Reports - 30 years).