The International Labor Organization (ILO) dedicated World Health and Safety Day 2015 to health and safety by introducing a concerted action that has the slogan: "Join in building a culture of OSH prevention". What does creating a concerted action mean? Which organizations?
First of all, when we talk about safety at work, we cannot fail to highlight the issue related to chemicals, which are production and use on a global scale and are widely used in the workplace.
Let's see how the topic was addressed on April 28th.
Chemicals at work
Chemicals are fundamental in modern life and will continue to be produced and used in the workplace. The chemicals in question are pesticides, drugs, cleaning and hygiene products, for example.
Chemicals are also used in numerous industrial product development processes necessary to ensure an adequate standard of living worldwide.
On the ILO website it is possible to download the product report relating to chemical substances in the workplace free of charge, which examines the current situation regarding the use of chemical products at work and their impact on the workplace and the environment . and in particular the various initiatives adopted at national, regional and international level to face this problem.
Valid elements are provided to the reader to establish national programs at company level that contribute to ensuring a rational management of chemicals at work .
This day, as we said, aims to promote a concerted action of governments, employers, workers and their organizations can promote the rational management of chemicals and achieve an adequate balance between the advantages that represent the chemicals and preventive measures and control of undesirable effects on workers, the population and the environment.
To get to the heart of the matter, we highlight the article ' Towards a culture of safety and health at work ' which was sent by Gerard Zwetsloot and Niek Steijger by the Organization for Applied Scientific Research of the Netherlands and is now online.
It is a very informative article that provides useful references to tools and methods aimed at assessing the culture of OSH, which will later enable companies to implement actions to increase awareness and change behavior.
Breast cancer, the substances to avoid
Worker protection, consumer awareness, business information
The coherent global action also starts from the consumer : starting to wash in an ecological way, keeping the house respecting the environment, finding the time and the desire to understand what we really use when we buy cosmetic products and start to take an interest in the ingredients and understand which they are really aggressive and which are not, both for our skin and for the environment and, last but not least, get an idea about Italian bio and eco certifications, recognize them.
In this regard, we report the document "Chemical substances and consumers", to the site Reach.gov.it, dedicated to informing citizens about chemical products.
There is also an information bulletin "Chemicals - Environment and Health" of the Ministry of the Environment and the Protection of the Territory and the Sea (MATTM) is edited by the Division V - Environmental certification, chemical products and green purchases of the Management for Evaluations environmental. The bulletin periodically provides updates and information on the main activities and regulations concerning chemical substances, in implementation of the REACH regulation.
For companies instead, always on the site, there is the national REACH Helpdesk managed by the Ministry of Economic Development is a public and free service that allows companies to access a range of information (even by submitting questions directly to the Helpdesk) on Regulation, on pre-registration, registration and authorization, on SIEFs (Forum for the exchange of information on chemical substances) and on SEA TOOL (support tool for socio-economic analysis in the authorization process), as well as access to guides techniques, exposure scenarios and software developed together with the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).
