Why are chemicals in the workplace and beyond?
Chemicals are key to healthy living and modern
convenience. They range from pesticides that improve the extent and quality of
food production, to pharmaceuticals that cure illnesses, and cleaning products
that help establish hygienic living conditions.
Chemicals are also critical in
many industrial processes for developing products important to global standards
of living.
However, governments, employers and workers
continue to struggle to address controlling exposure to these chemicals in the
workplace,as well as limiting emissions to the environment.
What are the main threats created by chemicals?
Chemicals pose a broad range of potential adverse effects, from health hazards
such as cancers and physical hazards like
flammability, to environmental hazards such as widespread contamination and
toxicity to aquatic life. Many fires, explosions, and other disasters result
from inadequate control of chemicals’ physical hazards.
Is progress being made for the sound management of chemicals?
Significant progress has been made concerning the regulation and management of chemicals in the field of occupational safety and health but more needs to be done. Serious incidents continue to happen and there are still negative impacts on both human health and environment.
Workers who are
directly exposed to hazardous substances should
have the right to work in a safe and healthy environment and be properly
informed, trained and protectes.
Can we easily evaluate the impact of chemicals on workers’ health?
It is difficult to determine the extent of health effects in the workplace
related to chemical exposures. Because of the complexity of assessing mixtures
of chemicals, strategies to prevent harmful exposure tend to focus on
individual chemical substances. This is further complicated by the fact that
these substances can also be found combined with mixtures in most workplaces.
They are rarely assessed or tested in the form of a mixture. Standards for
individual chemicals routinely address problems with a single chemical.
Still, the reality is that there are so many chemicals to which workers may be
exposed that this substance-by-substance approach will never be able to
adequately protect them. Most workers are exposed to mixtures, rather than individual chemical substances, therefore the
control of mixed exposures is critical for an effective protective programme.
Furthermore, efforts to establish the connection between an exposure to
chemicals 20 years ago and a case of cancer today have also been hampered by lack
of information about the effects of chemical exposures. Record keeping on
effects resulting from exposure to chemicals also needs to be improved.
What are the main recommendations included in the report?
The report calls on governments, employers, workers and their organizations to
collaborate in the development and implementation of national policies and
strategies aimed at the sound management of chemicals at work.
These must
comprehensively and simultaneously address the health, safety, and environmental aspects related to the production and use of
chemicals. The idea is to maintain the benefits achieved through the production
and use of chemicals while minimizing workers’ exposure as well as the emission
of chemicals into the environment through national and international
action.
A coherent global response is necessary to coordinate the continuous scientific
and technological progress, the growth in chemicals production and changes in
the organization of work. Likewise, new tools need to be developed to provide
readily available information about chemical hazards and risk, and associated
preventive and protective measures.
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