When carcinogens are present at the workplace, employers must do everything in their power to prevent workers from coming into contact with them. Promote a health and safety culture in your workplace!
General approach for risk management of carcinogens
The first steps when fighting exposure to carcinogens at the workplace should always include:
- Keep in mind that minimum standards for work organisation and safety requirements must be in place at all times. However, these may not be sufficient and further measures might be necessary
- List all carcinogens used and their quantities
- Gather their safety data sheets
- Describe the tasks where they are used, making sure to consider all potential process generated carcinogens
- Identify workers that are potentially subject to exposure and for how long
- Consider all the above when preparing your workplace risk assessment
When providing instructions to your workers remember to:
- Always use simple and clear language, short and straight to the point sentences
- Aim for a clean design in written instructions
- Include illustrations/schemes when possible
S.T.O.P principle: What you need to consider
The STOP principle describes the order of priority of protective measures. The employer must observe this order of priority when determining and applying protective measures. The individual letter S-T-O-P stand for different types of protective measures:
S … Substitution – replace dangerous substances with less dangerous substances or processes. Substitution is always the first measure to consider.
T … Technical measures – from closed systems to effective air suction, many techniques help to reduce the exposure towards carcinogens dramatically.
Learn more about Technical measures
O … Organisational measures – may consist of internal policies and/or organisational methods. These measures should only be used to provide additional protection. They should also be considered for emergencies and for workers who carry out regular cleaning and maintenance work.
Learn more about Organisational measures
P … Personal Protection – sometimes substitution is not possible and technical and organisational measures are not enough. Then you need to use personal protection.
Learn more about Personal Protection
