goes to the core of the handling debate.“Firstly, chemical scientists handle dangerous chemicals and require a consistently sterile environment for chemical reactions,” the company reports. “Therefore, they need a high level of personal protective equipment, accompanied by industry- specific fume and chemical extractors to avoid any serious injury or contamination.
“In comparison, cooks, bakers, hairdressers and beauticians will often forgo the necessary PPE as the risk isn’t necessarily an immediate threat to life. However, over time the contact with and inhaling of low-risk chemicals and irritants will eventually result in the higher rates of incidents seen in these results. “Secondly, any strong chemicals used by chemical scientists
tend to have specific exposure limits and
procedures for avoiding contamination. This level of vigilance doesn’t occur with excessive use of regular irritants and chemicals, such as allergic ingredients, cleaning products, hair products, or flour.” Overall, these statistics emphasise that workers and employers need to stay vigilant of any potential risks in the workplace and have the necessary extraction systems in place. Length of exposure should be seen as just as important as the immediate harm posed by a chemical or irritant when evaluating the safety of a workplace. One only has to look into recent history to recall the days when thousands of women joined Britain’s First World War effort by replacing men in engineering, mills and factories. Those who joined the munitions production line became known as Canary Girls, stained yellow as they were by toxic chemicals. Not unlike the young boys who would carry gunpowder from the powder magazine to the guns on artillery ships during what was known as the golden
age of sail. Farmworkers made the list, coming 24 out of 25 but reporting 4.5 times the general levels of sickness incidents when compared to the average. Apart from working with moving machinery, unpredictable livestock, chemicals, silos and in generally noisy environments, the report also noted that farming activities also create large amounts of agricultural dust, from milling seed to producing agricultural feed, which can be detrimental to long-term health.
DUST COLLECTING: THE VITAL ELEMENT What further separates the powders industry apart is the deployment of industrial cyclone dust collectors; systems used to enhance the quality of the air released from industrial processes by collecting dust and purifying the air. In simple terms, a dust collector consists of a blower, receptacle, a filter cleaning system and filter, the basis of Wilhelm Beth’s pioneering designs. These days there are five basic kinds: fabric filter dust collectors, unit collectors, inertial separators, wet scrubbers and electrostatic precipitators.
One of the things that the leading industry players know
of course is that, unlike those on the fringes, there is strong awareness of just how many things in the workplace could possibly cause harm or illness – as is the severity of the penalties for avoiding them. Which is why the Control of Substances Hazardous
to Health (COSHH) Regulations were put in place and set standards over the control of exposure to materials to not only employees, but to anyone on the premises such as visitors, suppliers or contractors. These regulations are far-reaching and are
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