Chemical and biological hazards

On behalf of the German Social Accident Insurance Institutions, the Chemical and Biological Hazards Department analyses samples within the German Social Accident Insurance Institutions' MGU measurement system for exposure assessment, in order to determine the level of exposure to hazardous substances and biological agents at workplaces. Approximately 20,000 air and material samples are analysed each year by means of standardized, validated measurement methods, and approximately 85,000 hazardous and biological substances determined. Most of the measurement methods used were developed in-house at the IFA.

Where the accident insurance institutions require new measurement methods, Department 2 of the IFA has the resources to develop them and make them available as part of the MGU. In addition, the IFA measurement methods are published in a range of publications. These include the IFA folder, DGUV Informative publications 213-5xx (for CMR substances) and the MAK Collection of the German Research Foundation (DFG). The IFA’s staff are also involved at national and international level in standardization work on measurement methods, strategies and requirements.

For quality assurance purposes, the department's experts participate regularly in internal audits and inter-laboratory tests. In addition, the staff organize and conduct national and international proficiency tests for hazardous substance measurement methods for laboratories and measuring institutes, both within companies and external.

Applications relating to the measurement of hazardous substances in the workplace are managed by the department. These include GESTIS - International Limit Values (GESTIS-ILV), GESTIS - Analysis Methods for Chemical Agents (GESTIS-AMCAW) and the Measurement Uncertainty Service Tool (MUST).

The department also supports the German Social Accident Insurance Institutions on site at companies' premises in the performance of complex and difficult measurement tasks and consults with them on issues relating to hazardous substances and biological agents and investigations of individual cases of formally recognized occupational diseases (BKs). The department organizes and conducts training and seminars for the German Social Accident Insurance Institutions, including courses on the software for work histories in cases of occupational disease.

The Chemical and Biological Hazards department is divided into the following sections: