The Ingenieur Vol 59 July-Sept 2014 The Ingenieur Vo. 59, July-Sept 2014 | Page 49

Dosing plants with pesticides

strategy to promote a similar
approach for all countries. The
GHS has a list of environmentally
agreed criteria for hazard
classification.
Many jobs being created in
the global economy today are socalled “Green Jobs”, or jobs in
industries that are designed to
reduce adverse environmental
impacts through the development
and
implementation
of
alternative
technology
and
practices. While Green Jobs are
welcome in terms of providing
new opportunities for workers
to be employed, it is critical that
these jobs are established and
monitored to ensure that they are
not creating new, and possibly
unknown,
hazards.
While
supporting the concept that new
approaches to chemical use and
other aspects of industry are
needed to minimize the impact
on the environment, it is just
as important to ensure that
the workers performing these
important jobs are adequately
protected.

The ILO Convention on the
Prevention of Major Industrial
Accidents, 1993(No.174) and its
accompanying Recommendation
(No. 181) focus on examining
the potential risk of catastrophic
disaster, and planning appropriate preventive measures
and emergency response on the
basis of an OSH management
system. The requirements of
this Convention complement
the ILO Chemicals Convention
(No.170) by elaborating further
on the sound management of
chemicals. The ILO has also
developed a Code of Practice on
the prevention of major industrial
accidents and a manual on major
hazards control to complement
the standards.
Safety in the use of chemicals
at work relate to environmental
protection
The sound management of
chemicals is a life cycle approach
to
chemical
management,
meaning that each step of
the life cycle is subject to an
evaluation to determine the level

and types of control required.
While the use of the chemicals
in work processes is one
step, proper disposal and the
management of emissions and
releases are equally important.
A thorough examination of the
potential risks of a chemical in
the workplace should include
all of the steps in the life cycle,
including those related to
environmental protection. The
protection of workers involved in
the disposal, or maintenance of
controls related to environmental
protection, must also be
included in this assessment. An
effective chemical management
programme
addresses
all
of these issues. A thorough
approach also addresses the
need for preventing catastrophic
releases, or containing them
should they occur accidentally.
International and national
developments related to sound
management of chemicals
A major part of international
work in the field of chemical
safety takes place through
collaboration within the context
of established mechanisms for
inter-agency co-operation.
The Bhopal incident and
other precipitating factors have
formed the basis for continuing
and
co-ordinated
strategy
for the sound management
of chemicals. In 1992, the
United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development
(UNCED) adopted a number of
mandates related to chemical
control. The Globally Harmonized
System of Classification and
Labelling of Chemicals (GHS)
was one of those mandates.
Subsequent to UNCED, a coordinating group of international

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