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21	Chemicals and dust

This is an excerpt from the TUC book "Hazards at Work: Organising for safe and healthy workplaces", the best-selling guide to health and safety at work. To buy a copy order here (if you are a safety representative on a TUC training course please speak to your tutor about getting a discounted copy)

BASIC FACTS ABOUT CHEMICALS AND DUST

According to estimates in March, 2007 by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), around 30,000 chemicals are made, sold and used in significant amounts. DEFRA goes on to state that the current system has generated proper assessments on only a few hundred. The true extent of work-related health damage from hazardous substances is not known and estimates vary widely. In the latest figures available from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in 2006, out of approximately 900 substances they have considered:

• 101 are carcinogenic to humans
• 69 are probably carcinogenic to humans
• 245 are possibly carcinogenic to humans

According to a TUC briefing for safety representatives in January 2007, it has been estimated that one in three of all occupational diseases recognised in Europe every year are caused by exposure to workplace chemicals. The TUC believes that around 18,000 deaths a year in the UK are caused by cancers caused by workplace exposure. There are many tens of thousands of others who suffer from skin problems, breathing problems or neurological damage caused by exposure to chemicals.

The 2008 TUC safety representatives survey showed overall that:

• chemicals or solvents were a major concern to 11 per cent of safety representatives
• dusts were a major concern to 9 per cent of safety representatives

In the private sector there was more concern, with the figures showing that:

• chemicals or solvents were a major concern to 21 per cent of safety representatives
• dusts were a major concern to 15 per cent of safety representatives

Safety representatives need to be aware of the potential damage to health arising from the use of such substances. Unlike physical hazards, where the hazard is visible and the effects immediate, the harmful effects of toxic substances are not always obvious. The hidden hazards of chemicals, dusts and other toxic substances present a real threat to workers’ health and may be one of the greatest single causes of health damage:

• chemical technology is used in most work processes
• thousands of substances are in daily use world-wide
• hundreds of new substances are brought onto the market each year

A huge range of substances and processes are used to make the goods and provide the services we take for granted. Hazardous substances are used in almost every workplace – offices, hospitals, hairdressing salons, gardens, kitchens and so on.

Every day people at work are exposed to substances which may cause:

• cancer
• reproductive disorders
• nerve and brain disorders
• liver and kidney diseases
• heart and lung disease
• skin disease
  
• allergies and sensitization

What is a hazardous substance?

Hazardous substances are those that have the potential to cause harm to workers if they are exposed to them. They may be naturally occurring everyday materials like wood dust, sugar or flour; they may be metals like aluminium, chromium or lead; but they are most likely to be mixtures and compounds of different substances that occur in materials like paint, solvents, detergent, metalworking fluids, pesticides, herbicides and adhesives. There are tens of thousands of different substances that are used in workplaces. Some hazardous substances are not supplied to the workplace but are created during the work process itself. These include welding and soldering fumes, dust from grinding and fettling metal, and diesel fumes from forklift trucks.

How do hazardous substances affect people?

Reactions to toxic substance exposure vary from mild to severe. In some cases reactions can be fatal. For example, glass fibre insulation material will cause itching for a short time, but it may also have more serious long-term exposure effects. Exposure to a chemical known to cause asthma can result in fatal anaphylactic shock. The human body responds in different ways to hazardous substances and the response will usually depend on the material or substance and the level of exposure to it. The most common effects are:

• Irritation of the breathing system. Substances can irritate the nose and upper lung passages, causing sneezing and coughing and, in some cases, bronchitis. They may also damage lung tissue.
• Irritation of the skin and eyes. A common reaction is dermatitis – a rash. Solvents can remove the protective oils from the skin. This makes it dry, rough and sore. Some chemicals (for example, hydrochloric acid and caustic soda) may cause irritation in dilute form, but when concentrated can cause chemical burns. The eye is extremely vulnerable if substances make contact.
• Sensitisation of the respiratory system. Some substances can cause ‘sensitisation’. Once a worker is sensitised any further exposure, even very small, may bring on an allergic response of coughing and wheezing.
• Sensitisation of the skin. Sensitisation can also occur if a substance gets on the skin. Further contact, even if tiny, may cause itching, rashes and discomfort.
• Long-term effects. Some effects only emerge after years of exposure, or manifest themselves years after exposure. These are called chronic effects. Often very low doses can cause these – there may be no shortterm (acute) effects to warn people of the risk. Lung damage caused by dusts or heart disease caused by smoking are two examples of long-term effects.
• Cancer, which is the long-term effect of most concern. This is a disorder of cell growth. It arises from a complex interaction between a harmful agent or agents (carcinogens) and the body. A number of chemicals are known or suspected cancer agents. The effect of exposure to a carcinogen may not be seen for many years, and early identification is often
  difficult.
• Reproductive disorders. Some substances can cause loss of sex drive, and infertility in both men and women. They can damage the sperm or the egg (mutagens) or the foetus (teratogens). There is a lack of reliable evidence on this for most industrial chemicals.

There is a further complicating factor: not everyone will respond in the same way to an exposure. One common example of this is that not all cigarette smokers develop lung cancer or heart disease. The body’s reaction depends on a whole host of factors, including gender, age, lifestyle, genetic make-up and even natural tolerance.

What are the risks?

History has shown that the hazards are often not recognised until too late. Signs of damage may take so many years to develop that all substances should be treated with caution. In particular, care is needed if laboratory experiments show potential harm, or if a substance with a similar structure has been known to harm humans.

Risk depends upon toxicity and dose:

• Toxicity is potential to cause harm. This varies with the substance; route of entry into the body; and the body’s response. For example, caustic soda may cause a chemical burn, silica may cause fibrosis of the lung. Carbon tetrachloride may cause dermatitis by defatting the skin and, after absorption, also affect the brain, blood and liver.
• Dose is the amount of the substance that is absorbed into the body. This depends on the concentration of the substance in different organs and tissues and the time it remains and stays active. Some substances accumulate in the body. In these cases, repeated low doses may cause harm.

How do hazardous substances enter the body?

The ease with which substances enter the body depends on their physical and chemical make-up. It could be a gas or vapour, an aerosol, fume, liquid, dust or fibre. For an aerosol, dust or fibre, particle size is important as this affects how far it can travel into the lungs. Once inside the body the substance’s effect will depend on its solubility in body fluids (such as water and natural oils) and how the substance reacts with the body's own chemicals.

The routes of entry are:

• Inhalation: breathing is the most common route of entry. Aerosols, fumes, vapours and gases can cause harm anywhere in the respiratory system and may also be absorbed into the blood stream. Particles of dust and fibre can also cause harm. Large particles are filtered off in the nose; smaller ones, or those breathed through the mouth, settle on the walls of the windpipe or throat and are coughed up and either spat out or swallowed. The smallest particles of dust and fibres can be inhaled down into the lungs where they can cause local damage or be absorbed into the blood stream.
• Skin absorption: the thickness of the skin and its natural covering of sweat and grease provide some protection. This means only a few substances are readily absorbed by this route, such as organic solvents and phenols. Substances can also enter the body through cuts.
• Ingestion: the swallowing of substances is most likely when contaminated fingers are placed in the mouth, or used to handle food or cigarettes. In addition, inhaled particles may be coughed up and then swallowed.

Acute and chronic effects

Substances may have acute or chronic effects:

• An acute response is immediate – for example, inhalation of chlorine irritates the respiratory tract. Acute responses usually clear up once the individual has been removed from the problem.
• A chronic reaction is much slower and often builds up after repeated exposures over days, weeks or years – for example, dermatitis of the hands due to repeated contact with solvents. Most chronic diseases require a much longer period for recovery and in some cases damage is permanent.

Chronic and acute effects from a particular substance may be very different from each other and protecting against only one kind of effect may not control the hazard of the other.

Chemicals, work and cancer

Cancer begins when cells in a part of the body startto grow out of control. The growths which result are called tumours and may either be ‘benign’ or ‘malignant’. A benign tumour is one which doesn’t spread to other parts of the body, although it may produce adverse effects such as pressure on nearby tissues and disruption of their normal functions. Malignant tumours can spread to other parts of the body through the blood vessels and lymphatic system, and establish new growths called ‘secondary tumours’. It is to these invasive, malignant types of tumour that the term ‘cancer’ is generally applied.

Cancer can be caused by radioactivity, sunlight, viruses and genetic disorders, but there are many substances used at work that are also linked to cancer. Some of these substances are known to have a direct link with cancer such as asbestos, tobacco smoke and diesel exhaust particulates. Many other chemicals also have direct links, such as vinyl chloride monomer with angiosarcoma of the liver; benzidine with bladder cancer, and mineral oils with scrotal cancer.

It can often be difficult to prove a link between exposure to a particular chemical and cancer in humans, or to assess the real degree of risk a substance poses to human health because:

• there is often a long period between exposure and the effect
• some types of cancer such as lung cancer are relatively common in the population at large, so any extra cases due to exposure to a substance may not be detected
• gender differences can mean women and men are affected differently
• histories of occupational exposure are seldom recorded
• other factors such as smoking, diet, lifestyle or exposure to other substances or agents may act
  separately or combine with occupational factors to affect the incidence of cancer
• some carcinogens such as diesel exhaust are present in both work and non-work situations.

Much of the work on linking cancer to chemical substances has been done by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). IARC classifies substances into categories: 108 substances in group 1 are known human carcinogens; 66 substances in group 2A are probable human carcinogens; and 248 substances in group 2B are possible human carcinogens. 516 substances are not classifiable as human carcinogens.

The full list is at http://monographs.iarc.fr/ENG/Classification/index.php

IARC regularly publishes monographs on substances setting out their toxicity; these are available from http://monographs.iarc.fr/index.php.

The TUC has published a guide for safety representatives, Occupational Cancer: A Workplace Guide, at www.tuc.org.uk/extras/occupationalcancer.pdf The TUC wants all carcinogens to be removed from workplaces and replaced by less toxic and hazardous materials. In some cases this may not be possible – for instance, hospital radiographers are unable to work without some exposure to radiation, and bus garage workers are necessarily exposed to diesel exhaust. In these cases protection given to workers must be of the highest possible level. More information from the Hazards Work Cancer Prevention Kit can be found at www.hazards.org/cancer/preventionkit/index.htm

Standards

The HSE produces a set of Workplace Exposure Limits (WELs), which set maximum exposure standards for a select number of chemicals and substances used in workplaces, but there are problems with this approach:

• There are thousands of substances that are used in workplaces; the WEL’s list contains just 400.
• The limits could give a false sense of security and do not always represent safe conditions.
• Some argue that many limits are still based upon the questionable Threshold Limit Values, developed many years ago in America.
• Women may be adversely affected at lower levels than men, and research often concentrates on men rather than women.
• Some chronic (long-term) effects may be unknown. Limits are often lowered as more information comes to light.
• Standards do not exist for many potentially harmful substances.
• Little is known about the effects of mixtures of substances that workers are exposed to.
• Supposed safe limits sometimes differ between different countries.

LEGAL AND OTHER STANDARDS FOR PREVENTION AND CONTROL

A considerable number of laws and regulations apply to chemicals and dusts. General duties can be found in the following chapters of Hazards at Work:

• SRSC Regulations 1977 – Chapter 3, with reference to safety representatives’ rights and consultation
• Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 – Chapter 12
• Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 – Chapter 13
• Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare)Regulations 1992 – Chapter 45

SPECIFIC REGULATIONS DEALING WITH CHEMICALS AND SUBSTANCES

There are three main sets of regulations that deal specifically with chemicals and substances in the workplace; the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (as amended) (COSHH), the Chemicals (Hazards Information & Packaging for Supply) Regulations 2002 (as amended) (CHIP – known as CHIP 3); and the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002 (DSEAR).

Some substances are so dangerous they are regulated by their own separate Regulations; these are asbestos, lead and ionising radiation.

Chemicals (Hazards Information & Packaging for Supply) Regulations 2002 (CHIP)

Where chemical substances or preparations are supplied, these regulations require suppliers and/or manufacturers to identify the hazards of the substances they manufacture or supply, provide information about the hazards of those chemicals on packaging labels and in safety data sheets, and package chemicals safely. This information is essential for two key reasons: it enables workers to have immediate access to information about potentially hazardous substances; and it helps employers understand what measures they have to take to protect their workers. But it is important to remember that there will not be a data sheet or label for every substance produced in the workplace that is caused by the work process. So for example, it is unlikely there will be a data sheet for fumes produced by a diesel forklift, or for the airborne contaminants produced by grinding or fettling. Information about these substances will need to be sourced elsewhere.

Part of CHIP 3 is an Approved Supply List that classifies more than 2,500 substances according to their health and safety effects. These appear on labels and in documents as pictograms, and should include risk phrases (R phrases) and safety phrases (S phrases) which give guidance on the risks they pose, and on precautions to be observed when using the materials. More details can be found at www.hse.gov.uk/chip/phrases.htm Suppliers must also classify chemicals that do not appear on the approved supply list; guidance on this is given in the Approved Classification and Labelling Guide.

Safety data sheets must accompany all potentially hazardous chemicals and substances, and must contain information under the following headings:

• identification of the substance/preparation and company
• composition/information on ingredients
• identify the hazards
• first aid measures
• fire fighting measures
• accidental release measures
• handling and storage
• exposure controls/personal protection
• physical and chemical properties
• stability and reactivity
• toxicological data
• ecological data
• disposal
• transport information
• regulatory information
• other relevant information

Safety data sheets and labels vary widely in quality and should never be treated as authoritative sources of information. Collecting these data sheets alone does not in itself constitute a COSHH assessment (see below). The CHIP Regulations are summarised in the HSE publication “The idiots guide to CHIP3” INDG350 www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg350.pdf

“Why do I need a safety data sheet? INDG 353 www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg353.pdf and “Read the label: How to find out if…” INDG 352 www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg352.pdf

Leaflets on many chemical substances can be found at www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/chindex.htm#chip and further information from the HSE’s CHIP microsite is at www.hse.gov.uk/chip/index.htm

The CHIP Regulations were amended in April 2009 (to become CHIP 4), in order to meet the standards of the new EU Regulation on the Classification, Labelling and Packaging of Substances and Mixtures (the CLP Regulations), which came into force in January 2009. The main changes are to allow suppliers to comply with the CLP Regulation as an alternative to CHIP before the CLP Regulation become mandatory on 1 December 2010 for substances and 1 June 2015 for mixtures, and to provide powers for inspectors to enforce the CLP Regulation as well as CHIP.

Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002

DSEAR is a set of regulations concerned with protection against risks from fire, explosion and similar events arising from dangerous substances used or present in the workplace. In the context of DSEAR, dangerous substances include petrol, liquified petroleum gas (LPG), paints, varnishes, solvents, and dusts which when mixed with air can cause an explosive atmosphere – for example dusts from grain milling and sanding operations, powdered metals and flour.

The Regulations are intended to ensure employers do not create explosive atmospheres in the workplace. An explosive atmosphere is an accumulation of gas, mist, dust or vapour mixed with air, which has the potential to catch fire or explode. An explosive atmosphere does not always result in an explosion, but if it catches fire the flames can quickly travel through it and if this happened in a confined space (e.g. in plant or equipment) the rapid spread of the flames or rise in pressure could also cause an explosion.

Employers should apply measures which are consistent with the risk assessment and appropriate to the nature of the activity or operation. These can include:

• areas where hazardous explosive atmospheres may occur are classified into zones and marked as such
• areas classified into zones are protected from sources of ignition by using flameproof equipment and protective systems
• preventing fires and explosions from spreading to other plant and equipment or to other parts of the workplace
• reducing the numbers of employees exposed to a minimum
• in the case of process plant, providing equipment that can safely contain or suppress an explosion, or vent it to a safe place, including explosion reliefs
• where employees work in zoned areas they are provided with appropriate clothing that does not create an electrostatic discharge capable of igniting an explosive atmosphere
• areas where hazardous explosive atmospheres may be present must be verified as being safe by a person competent in explosion protection.

Employers should provide workers and their representatives with suitable information, instruction and training on precautions and actions they need to take to safeguard themselves and others. This should include:

• names of the substances in use and risks they present
• access to relevant safety data sheets
• details of legislation that applies to the hazardous properties of those substances, and
• the significant findings of the risk assessment.

Much of this is already required by other health and safety legislation. For instance, information required under the CHIP Regulations must be supplied with any substance to which DSEAR applies, many materials will need to be assessed under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH), and other COSHH provisions will apply. (See below). An HSE guide to DSEAR “Fire and explosion: how safe is your workplace” INDG 370 is available at www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg370.pdf (See also Chapter 29) Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002 S1 2002/2776 www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2002/uksi_20022776_en.pdf The Safe Use and Handling of Flammable Liquids HSG 140 ISBN 0 7176 0967 7 HSE Books £8.50

Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH)

This is the main legislation that sets out in detail the duties imposed on the employer to protect workers from exposure to hazardous substances at work. It is beyond the scope of this manual to reproduce all the provisions of COSHH, but the Regulations and Approved Codes of Practice and Guidance are available from HSE Books (see end of this chapter for details), and there are references to many other sources of essential information.

The key elements of COSHH are outlined in the HSE leaflet INDG 136 (Rev 3) COSHH: A brief guide to the regulations. The following steps are based on the information from INDG 136.

COSHH Step 1: Assess the risks The first step is to decide whether there is a problem with the substance(s) your company is using. This is called a risk assessment. The employer must:

• identify the hazardous substances present in your workplace
• consider the risks these substances present to people’s health

Assessing the risk involves making a judgement on how likely it is that a hazardous substance will affect someone’s health. Employers should ask themselves:

• how much of the substance is in use and how people might be exposed to it  who might be exposed to the substance and how often
• is there a possibility of substances being absorbed through the skin or swallowed?
• are there risks to employees at other locations, if they work away from the main workplace? Legal responsibility for the assessment rests with the employer, but others can do some or even most of the work of preparing it. Except in very simple cases, whoever carries out the assessment will need to:
• have access to and understand the COSHH Regulations and relevant ACoPs
• be able to get all the necessary information and have the knowledge and experience to make correct decisions about the risks and the actions needed.

Safety representatives should be involved in assessments as they have valuable contributions to make. They must also be informed of the results of the assessment.

COSHH Step 2: Decide what precautions are needed If the employer identifies significant risks, they must decide on the action to take to remove or reduce them to acceptable levels. To decide whether risks are significant, employers can compare controls with:

• advice from COSHH Essentials (www.coshhessentials. org.uk)
• the results of monitoring workers’ exposure with workplace exposure limits (WELs) published in EH40/2005
• good standards from the industry sector

Action must be taken if there are risks to health. If there are five or more employees, the employer should make and retain a record of the main findings of the assessment, either in writing or on computer. The record should be made as soon as practicable after the assessment. It should include a record of:

• enough information to explain the decisions taken about whether risks are significant and the need for any control measures
• the actions employees and others need to take to ensure hazardous substances are adequately controlled

The assessment should:

• be reviewed when there is reason to suspect the assessment is no longer valid
• be reviewed when there has been a significant change in the work
• be reviewed when the results of monitoring employees’ exposure shows it to be necessary
• state when the next review is planned

COSHH Step 3: Prevent or adequately control exposure The COSHH Regulations require prevention of exposure, so employers should:

• change the process or activity, so that the hazardous substance is not needed or generated
• replace it with a safer alternative
• use it in a safer form, for example, pellets instead of powder

If prevention is not reasonably practicable, the employer must adequately control exposure. This can be done using one of the following measures, in order of priority:

• use appropriate work processes, systems and engineering controls, and provide suitable work equipment and materials. For example, use processes which minimise the amount of material used or produced, or equipment which totally encloses the process
• control exposure at source, for example, by using local exhaust ventilation; and reduce to a minimum the number of employees exposed, the level and duration of their exposure, and the quantity of hazardous substances used or produced in the workplace
• provide personal protective equipment, but only as a last resort and never as a replacement for other control measures which are required

COSHH Step 4: Ensure that control measures are used and maintained COSHH requires employees to make proper use of control measures and to report defects. It is the employer’s responsibility to take all reasonable steps to ensure that they do so. This is why employees must be given suitable training, information and appropriate supervision (see Step 8 for a more detailed explanation).

COSHH places specific duties on employers to ensure that controls are kept in efficient working order and good repair. Engineering controls and respiratory protective equipment have to be examined and, where appropriate, tested at suitable intervals. COSHH sets specific intervals between examinations for local exhaust ventilation equipment, and records of examinations and tests carried out (or a summary of them) must be kept, for at least five years.

COSHH Step 5: Monitor exposure Under COSHH, employers have to measure the concentration of hazardous substances in the air breathed in by workers where their assessment concludes that:

• there could be serious risks to health if control measures failed or deteriorated
• exposure limits might be exceeded
• control measures might not be working properly

COSHH Step 6: Carry out appropriate health surveillance COSHH requires employers to carry out health surveillance in the following circumstances:

• where an employee is exposed to one of the substances listed in Schedule 6 of COSHH, and is working in one of the related processes – for example, manufacture of certain compounds of benzene – and there is reasonable likelihood that an identifiable disease or adverse health effect will result from that exposure
• where employees are exposed to a substance linked to a particular disease or adverse health effect, and there is a reasonable likelihood under the conditions of the work of that disease or effect occurring, and it is possible to detect the disease or health effect.

COSHH Step 7: Prepare plans and procedures to deal with accidents, incidents and emergencies This will apply where the work activity gives rise to a risk of an accident, incident or emergency involving exposure to a hazardous substance, which goes well beyond the risks associated with normal day-to-day work. Employers must prepare procedures, and set up warning and communication systems to enable an appropriate response immediately any incident occurs.

COSHH Step 8: Ensure that employees are properly informed, trained and supervised COSHH requires employers to provide employees with suitable information, instruction and training about:

• the names of the substances they work with or could be exposed to and the risks created by such exposure to those substances
• access to any safety data sheets that apply to those substances
• the main findings of the risk assessment
• the precautions they should take to protect themselves and other employees
• how to use personal protective equipment
• the results of any exposure monitoring and health surveillance
• emergency procedures which need to be followed

The full text of the HSE guide COSHH: A Brief Guide to the Regulations (INDG136rev3) can be found at www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg136.pdf

Workplace exposure limits (WELs)

The HSE publication EH 40 – Workplace Exposure Limits (2005) sets out maximum exposure limits for nearly 400 substances that may find their way into workplaces. This is only a fraction of the almost 40,000 substances that have been registered with the European Chemical Agency under REACH (see below for more information).

A WEL is the maximum concentration of an airborne substance, averaged over an eight hour reference period, to which workers may be exposed by inhalation. The limits set are not necessarily safe or without risk, and wherever possible employers should aim to ensure contamination levels are as low as possible, not just to comply with the WEL standard. Correct application of the principles of good practice defined by COSHH should mean that exposures are controlled below the WEL.

The list of substances and the limits set may change. An updated list is available from www.hse.gov.uk/coshh/table1.pdf The current version is dated 2007.

Registration Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH)

Around 100,000 different substances are registered in the EU, of which around 30,000 are manufactured or imported in quantities above one tonne. Adequate data on the environmental and health effects is available for only a small proportion of these chemicals. In December 2006 the European Commission approved a new set of regulations on chemicals called REACH. These Regulations came into force in the UK on 1 December 2008. The Regulations are available to download at www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2008/pdf/uksi_20082852_en.pdf

REACH is based on the premise that industry itself should be responsible for ensuring that the chemicals it manufactures and puts on the market in the EU do not adversely affect the health of those workers exposed to them through their employment, the public who come in contact with them as users, or the environment. REACH also simplifies the control of chemicals in the European Union and replaces a large number of other directives with a single system of registration, evaluation and authorisation. REACH was primarily intended as a measure to protect the environment and consumers, but it also has implications for workplace safety, by encouraging the use of safer chemicals and substances over more hazardous ones. This should ensure that particularly hazardous substances are, over time, replaced by less hazardous alternatives.

In the UK, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has the policy lead on REACH. It developed the enforcement arrangements in conjunction with the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (now the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills) and the devolved administrations for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Organisations with enforcement powers in respect of REACH are the Health and Safety Executive (HSE); the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI); the Environment Agency (EA); the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA); the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC); and local authorities in respect of health and safety and consumer protection. Their enforcement powers are described in Schedules to the Regulations, but generally reflect their existing enforcement activities. All the enforcers have a duty to co-operate and share information; and there is also a wider informationsharing forum at the EU level to ensure consistency across the EU.

The duty is on manufacturers and importers of substances to register the material with the newlyestablished European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) based in Helsinki, whose task it is to manage the process of registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction processes for chemical substances. Manufacturers and importers are required to submit technical information and, for substances produced in excess of 10 tonnes, a chemical safety report. This process will cover all substances (with a few exceptions) if they are manufactured or imported into the EU in quantities above one tonne per year. Substances that pose a high risk – i.e. that are carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction – have to be authorised. Industry will also have to provide risk assessments and establish control measures for people using the substance. This should result in better labelling of products and also improve information on the data sheets that accompany them. Certain low risk substances and those adequately regulated under other legislation are exempt.

The ECHA published an intermediate list of around 40,000 pre-registered substances in October 2008 at http://apps.echa.europa.eu/preregistered/preregistered- sub.aspx Pre-registration means that the importers or manufacturers of these substance will benefit from an extended registration procedure, dependent on the amount of the substances produced or imported, or on its hazardous properties. Full registration for large amounts of material produced or imported (in excess of 1,000 tonnes annually) or some particularly dangerous and hazardous substances will be November 2010; for amounts of 100 tonnes per year May 2013; and for substances between 1–100 tonnes, May 2018.

For any substance not pre-registered by December 2008, the manufacturer or importer needs to complete the full registration process immediately in order to continue to manufacture, import or supply the material.

In April 2009, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) published a list of 306 substances as a contribution to the practical implementation of REACH. The purpose of this trade union priority list is to contribute to the practical implementation of REACH, in particular the authorisation procedure, by proposing Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) which from a union perspective should have priority for inclusion in the Candidate List and potentially in the Authorisation List. All the substances included are already listed as known or suspected carcinogens, endocrine disrupters, neurotoxins or sensitisers listed by other agencies. The booklet can be downloaded from http://hesa.etui.org/uk/newsevents/files/TU_Priority_ List_REACH.pdf.

The Regulations (and guidelines) are both technical and complex, extending to thousands of pages, and the extended registration period to 2018 means that there will probably be many changes and developments to take into account before REACH is fully implemented. Updates on REACH progress will appear in the TUC’s Risks bulletin.

The HSE REACH web pages have up-to-date information on developments: www.hse.gov.uk/reach/enforcement.htm The TUC REACH briefing for Safety Representatives can be found at: www.tuc.org.uk/h_and_s/tuc-12870-f0.cfm.

Nanotechnology and nanomaterials

Nanotechnology is the study of materials and matter at the atomic and molecular level; one nanometre is one billionth of a metre. This new technology, it is claimed, has the potential to create many new materials and devices with wide-ranging applications in a number of fields such as medicine, electronics, energy production, food and consumer goods production.

Nanomaterials behave differently than other similarly-sized particles and the physical and chemical properties of a material at the nano level can be very different to the properties of the material in its normal form. For example, gold is a metal that is almost chemically inert in its normal form, while at the nanoparticle level, it behaves as a potent catalyst. Serious concerns have been raised about the introduction of this technology, because there is insufficient information about its safety, and the possible health effects on humans. See for example www.hazards.org/nanotech/.

While nanomaterials are predicted to yield numerous health and health care advances, including more targeted methods of delivering drugs, new cancer therapies, and new methods for early detection of diseases, they may also have unwanted effects. An increased rate of absorption is the main concern associated with manufactured nanoparticles. When materials are made into nanoparticles, their surface area to volume ratio increases. The greater surface area per unit weight may lead to increased rates of absorption through the skin, lungs, or digestive tract and may cause as yet unknown effects to the lungs and other organs.

Nanotechnology is already in use in consumer goods, providing products with novel functions ranging from easy-to-clean windows to scratchresistant sunglasses. Modern textiles use nanomaterials to create wrinkle-resistant and stainrepellent clothing, and nano titanium dioxide is being used in sunscreen cream. For more examples of potential applications, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ List_of_nanotechnology_applications.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Chemicals Committee has established a working party on manufactured nanomaterials to address some of the concerns surrounding them. It is currently looking at the practices of OECD member countries in regards to nanomaterial safety.

The latest OECD Report on nanomaterials, No 8, is available to download from www.olis.oecd.org/olis/2009doc.nsf/LinkTo/NT000029E6/$FILE/ JT03263204.PDF For more environment and health and safety reports and other documents from the OECD, go to its website at www.oecd.org/ehs/

The European Parliament’s Environment Committee is also calling for tighter controls on nanotechnology, including the application of the ‘no data, no market’ principle contained in the REACH regulations. The UK’s Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution report Novel materials in the environment: the case of nanotechnology published in November 2008 says that “the knowledge about the potential health and environmental impacts of nanomaterials lags significantly behind the pace of innovation”. (www.rcep.org.uk/novelmaterials.htm).

The Commission says that REACH proposals need to be changed to prevent nanomaterials made from relatively inert materials already registered under REACH from slipping through the regulatory net. It also raised questions over whether the REACH one tonne threshold for registration was too high, given the nature of nanomaterials.

Trade unions whose members work with nanomaterials, often in ignorance, are also demanding more research and limitations on the use of nanomaterials until more is known about their possible health effects. At the March 2009 conference on ‘Working and living with nanotechnologies’, which focused on the results of the European NanoCAP project, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) presented a resolution adopted in June 2008. The resolution calls for:

• all nanomaterials, including those produced or imported in quantities below one tonne a year to come within the REACH registration requirements
• a chemical safety report must be produced for all REACH-registered substances for which a nanometre scale use has been identified
• the involvement of workers and their representatives in the assessment and reduction of nanomaterial-related risks
• the improvement of worker information about nanomaterials that may be present in products to which they are exposed
• safety data sheets that state whether nanomaterials are present
• provision of training and health surveillance for workers exposed to nanomaterials
• at least 15 per cent of public research budgets to be allocated for health and environmental research
• health and safety at work considerations to be a compulsory part of all research projects.

The ETUC reiterated the confederation’s belief in the considerable application development potential of nanotechnologies and nanomaterials in the fields of health, the environment, medicinal products and renewable energy, but repeated concerns over the potential risks to human health and the environment.

In the UK, the HSE has already taken some enforcement action on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and issued an advisory leaflet. The main issue is that these CNTs have similar physical properties to asbestos, and the results of research at Edinburgh University recently published in Nature Nanotechnology has found that long, straight, multi-walled CNTs (MWCNTs) with a high aspect ratio produced a marked inflammatory reaction and the formation of granulomas when injected into the abdominal cavity of mice. Granulomas are small nodules of cells that form around foreign bodies that cannot easily be cleared. The reaction was similar to that seen when asbestos fibres with a high aspect ratio are injected into the abdominal cavity of mice. When short asbestos fibres, nanoparticulate carbon black and short or tangled MWCNTs were injected there was little or no inflammation. This suggests that the inflammatory response seen in this study may be due to the long, thin shape of the fibres. While this research does not prove that CNTs will cause the same diseases as asbestos, it does raise a level of concern. This finding applies only to long and thin CNTs (and possibly other nanomaterials that are long and thin). It does not apply to other nanoparticles that have different shapes.

The HSE has been sufficiently concerned to issue an information leaflet on CNTs, available at www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/web38.pdf The HSE says this information sheet is specifically about the manufacture and manipulation of carbon nanotubes and has been prepared in response to emerging evidence about the toxicology of these materials. However, the risk management principles detailed in the leaflet are equally applicable to other nanodimensioned biopersistent fibres with a similar aspect ratio.

 

WHAT CAN SAFETY REPRESENTATIVES DO?

Safety representatives should check that their employer is implementing the COSHH Regulations 2002 (as amended), and fully involving safety representatives in implementation.

The TUC encourages safety representatives to use their rights under the SRSC Regulations to engage in the COSHH assessment process (see Checklist below).

Keep the workforce informed and involved

Workers are concerned if they think they are working with hazardous substances. Safety
representatives can:

• give them the facts about hazardous substances
• discuss whether management plans are adequate
• provide an opportunity for workers to express/register their concerns – by holding meetings, conducting surveys and using body mapping and risk mapping techniques
• inspect the workplace regularly, and
• encourage workers to report problems to management and safety representatives

Safety representatives should report their concerns and those of their members to management in writing. Use Chapter 7 above for ideas on how you can make sure that management get things done.

Risk management

Safety representatives should urge their employer to implement fully the COSHH Regulations 2002 (as amended). Ensure that the employer prepares and implements a plan to manage the risks. Safety representatives should:

• be involved by management in the process of tackling hazardous substances
• monitor how management is following its plan
• keep the workforce informed of progress

Risk assessments

Safety representatives should ask for copies of the risk (COSHH) assessments that the employer has done to check that they are preventing exposure to hazardous substances, and make sure that their employer is notifying them of any cases of suspected ill health within the workplace. Where control measures are in place then safety representatives can check that they are being adhered to and maintained and also that they are being effective in preventing ill health.

Training and information

Safety representatives should monitor that where there are potential risks, their employer has given all their workforce appropriate training and information on both the symptoms of ill health and how to avoid it. In addition, a system of health surveillance should be in place wherever there are risks.

Checklist

Download the Chemicals & Dust Checklist (PDF)

FURTHER INFORMATION
(in alphabetical order)

Hazards magazine factsheets (see Section 6.2 for contact details)

• No. 63: Reproductive Health at Work: Women
• No. 61: Body Mapping: Body of Evidence
• No. 54: Cancer and Occupation
• No. 53: Toxics Use Reduction
• No. 41: Solvents and Brain Damage
• No. 40: Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
• No. 39: Asthma and Work
• No. 37: Fumes from Burning Plastic
• No. 33: Cutting Fluids/Machining Fluids
• No. 31: Substitution of Hazardous Substances
• No. 23: Wood Preservatives
• No. 22: Pesticides Safety
• No. 16: Chemical Exposure Standards
• No. 12: Textile Chemical Hazards
• No. 11: Polychlorinated Biphenyls
• No. 7: Diesel Exhaust Fumes

£1.50 each for union subscribers. £6 for nonsubscribers

Hazards magazine website

Excellent news and resources on the Hazards web resource page

HSE COSHH Essentials website

The HSE has a specific web page giving advice on controlling the use of chemicals for a range of common tasks.

HSE COSHH website

The HSE has a specific web page which draws together HSE information on controlling hazardous substances in one place. This includes details of the latest publication on workplace exposure limits (WELs), EH40/2005 Workplace Exposure

HSE LEV website

Local exhaust ventilation advice

HSE priced and free publications on hazardous substances

• For all the latest documents containing general standards and guidance on hazardous substances, go to the HSE web page
• Alternatively, obtain a free copy of the latest HSE Books catalogue, CAT 34, by telephoning 01787 881165

International Agency for Research on Cancer

News and resources

Labour Research Department (see Section 6.2 for contact details)

• Hazardous Substances at Work: A Safety Representative’s Guide £4.25

London Hazards Centre (see Section 6.2 for contact details)

• The Chemical Hazards Handbook
• Chemical Safety Legislation
• Formaldehyde

Pesticide Action Network

News and resources

TUC (see Section 6.1 for contact details)

• The TUC hazardous chemicals web page
• TUC ‘ESCAPE’ route for dangerous substances
• REACH – a TUC Briefing for Safety Representatives
• Essential information for safety representatives. Keep up to date on health and safety by reading Risks, the TUC’s weekly e-bulletin for safety representatives.

Trade union information

• Many unions provide guidance on chemicals and dusts. The website addresses of all trade unions are on the TUC website
• Hazards magazine has listed the health and safety pages of most trade unions
• Contact your union, or visit your union’s website to find out if it produces any guidance. For example, BFAWU produces a guide to COSHH and Unite has a booklet on hazardous substances