GESTIS-Stoffenmanager®

Start application

Contents

According to Art. 6 of the German Hazardous Substances Ordinance the employer is obliged to take all necessary measures to protect employees from health hazards during activities with hazardous substances. The central tool of the Hazardous Substances Ordinance is the risk assessment. Its purpose is to identify and assess risks relating to hazardous substances, e. g. due to inhalation or dermal exposure, and to define and check protective measures. The Technical Rules for Hazardous Substances (TRGS) 400 "Risk assessment for activities involving hazardous substances" and 402 "Identification and assessment of the risks from activities involving hazardous substances: inhalation exposure" define the procedure for risk assessment in detail.

GESTIS-Stoffenmanager® is an instrument, provided by the IFA, intended to support especially small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) conducting a risk assessment. GESTIS-Stoffenmanager® therefore consists of two modules:

• The module "Control banding" was developed to assist SMEs with risk assessment for inhalative and dermal exposure during activities involving hazardous substances according the Technical Rule TRGS 400. It helps to identify and prioritise health hazards arising from handling hazardous substances and to select effective protective measures to reduce these hazards. This module is intended as an introduction to risk assessment and especially in the case of substances for which there are no limit values or for which no measurement or analytical methods are available.
• The module "Quantitative exposure assessment" is a tool for the non-measuring estimation of the inhalative exposure in mg/m³ like it is recommended in the TRGS 402. Stoffenmanager® has been recommended in Chapter R.14 of the REACH technical Guidance document. Meaning the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) officially recognizes Stoffenmanager® as a REACH instrument.

In addition to these modules, GESTIS-Stoffenmanager® offers the facility for a register of hazardous substances as recommended in the German Hazardous Substances Ordinance and workplace instruction cards to be created and exported.

GESTIS-Stoffenmanager® is an online application. It is accessed through the secure https protocol. A valid e-mail address is all that is needed to create an account.

Publisher

The Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of the German Social Accident Insurance (IFA) provides GESTIS-Stoffenmanager® as the German and English version of the Dutch software "Stoffenmanager®" in co-operation with the AUVA (the Austrian General Accident Insurance Board). Stoffenmanager® was developed in the Netherlands by TNO, Arbo Unie and Beco (now Ernest & Young). GESTIS-Stoffenmanager®, which can be used on the Internet free of charge, is made available, maintained and developed further jointly by the IFA and Cosanta BV, a Dutch company. It is intended in particular to support small and medium-sized companies in performing risk assessments. They can save up to 35 products and risk assessments online.

Besides the free GESTIS-Stoffenmanager® version, a fee-based premium version of Stoffenmanager® is also available. This version is distributed directly by Cosanta BV and is intended in the first instance for larger companies dealing with large numbers of hazardous substances. In the premium version, the number of products and risk assessments is not limited. Besides the functions for risk assessment and non-measuring estimation of exposure, this version also offers extended functionality for company and hazardous substance management.

Use and Liability

By starting GESTIS-Stoffenmanager® you will leave the internet pages of the IFA. The internet tool GESTIS-Stoffenmanager® is hosted in the Netherlands under the Dutch domain "gestis-stoffmanager-de.stoffenmanager.nl". The conditions of use of the company Cosanta BV are legally binding.

The use of GESTIS-Stoffenmanager® is password protected and requires a valid email address. The personal data of the user accounts are dealt in strict confidence.

GESTIS-Stoffenmanager® has been developed with care in accordance with current scientific and technical good practice, and is updated with the same care. The software is made available to the user free of charge. Users use it at their own risk. To the extent permissible by law, no liability will be accepted for use of the website or GESTIS Stoffenmanager® on any legal basis.

Accessibility

Information on the accessibility status of the GESTIS-Stoffenmanager® is provided in the accessibility declaration.