Module 3: Toxicology - Section 6: General Administrative Regulations and the Hazardous Chemical Substances Regulations |
TOX 6.1: Overview |
OBJECTIVES |
By the end of this module
|
Question
1:
You have been recently appointed as the occupational health and safety
person in a nickel plating plant. The employer brings you a copy of the
HCS Regulations and asks you to explain the difference between hazard
and risk?
(Answer).
Question 2: What information on exposures will enable you to decide whether the nickel constitutes a risk to workers’ health in this plant? (Answer).
Question 3: You get an approved inspection authority to measure the environmental concentration of the workers during the work process (5 hours) since it would appear that workers are at high risk of inhaling the mists containing nickel compounds. The results indicate a level of 2-5 mg/m3. Is this abnormal? (Answer).
Question 5: What will you advise the employer? (Answer).
Question 5: During your medical surveillance you identify a worker with nasal perforation. What are your legal duties under the General Administrative Regulations as a medical practitioner? (Answer).
"HAZARD" refers to the capacity
of a substance to do harm.
"RISK" introduces an element of likelihood
or possibility
that the harmful event may take place.
Therefore for there to be a risk, there has to be "EXPOSURE" (potential or actual) to the harmful agent (Back to main text).
Institute control measures (consult engineer - local exhaust ventilation/enclosure);
Immediate demarcation of respirator zone and provide PPE as an interim measure;
No food eating/smoking in the demarcated zones;
Medical surveillance (at least 2 yearly) to assess for target organ effects eg. nasal perforations, occupational asthma;
Complete WCL 22 (First Medical Report in Respect of an Occupational Disease) and send to employer and a copy to the Department of Labour Inspector;
Advise the employer to complete WCL 1 (Employer’s Report of an Occupational Disease) and send to Compensation Commissioner.
Postgraduate Diploma in Occupational Health (DOH) - Modules 3:
Occupational Medicine & Toxicology (Basic) by Profs Mohamed
Jeebhay and Rodney
Ehrlich,
Health
Sciences UCT is licensed under a
Creative
Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa License.
Major contributors: Mohamed Jeebhay, Rodney Ehrlich, Jonny Myers,
Leslie London, Sophie Kisting, Rajen Naidoo, Saloshni Naidoo. Source available
from here.
For any updates to the material, or more permissions beyond the scope
of this license, please email healthoer@uct.ac.za
or visit www.healthedu.uct.ac.za.
Last updated Jan 2007.
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