Support in tasks involving carcinogenic substances

IFA website answers questions from the field

08-Jul-2010

What protective measures must be taken at a workplace at which employees are exposed to carcinogenic substances? Before now, anyone in Germany needing to assess this faced a problem: under the applicable hazardous substance ordinance (GefStoffV), only health-based workplace atmospheric limit values may now be employed. Such limit values cannot normally be specified for carcinogenic substances, making an assessment of the exposure difficult. This situation is to be rectified by the risk acceptance concept of the AGS Committee for Hazardous Substances, in particular the exposure-risk relationships and risk values values found within it. In order to facilitate application of this concept, the Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of the German Social Accident Insurance (IFA), together with the German Social Accident Insurance's co-ordinating committee responsible for hazardous working agents, has now published new information on the Internet.

Trialling of the risk acceptance concept has been underway since June 2008. The concept permits assessment of exposure during tasks involving carcinogenic substances at the workplace. There are two aspects to the concept. Firstly, exposure-risk relationships describe the additional risk of contracting cancer as a function of the substance's concentration at the workplace. Secondly, risk values describe a level of risk in the event of lifelong occupational exposure (40 years, 8 hours per day) that can be justified by social policy. The exposure-risk relationships enable exposure concentrations corresponding to the risk values to be defined for carcinogenic substances in workplace atmospheres. Comparison of these values with the exposure at an actual workplace provides the employer with a clear indication of the protective measures required.

Application of the concept, for example in the context of the necessary risk assessments or occupational medical prophylaxis, raises a number of questions for companies, however:
Does observance of the exposure-risk relationship eliminate hazards to health? How can the exposure-risk relationships already published be used? How binding are the exposure-risk relationships? Do exposure-risk relationships constitute limit values in the context of the GefStoffV? Do special occupational medical examinations apply for substances for which exposure-risk relationships do not exist? What exposure-risk relationship value should be referred to during the construction of a new installation? Can exposure-risk relationships assist in determining whether an air return arrangement is permissible? How do exposure-risk relationships relate to environmental pollution?

Answers to these and many other questions have been compiled by the accident insurance institutions and the IFA since 2008 in consultation with companies, and have now been published on the IFA's website. Users can add their own questions to the list at any time.

Internet URL: www.dguv.de; Webcode: d105371