Canadian Occupational Safety

www.thesafetymag.com/ca 13 F E A T U R E CHEMICAL EXPOSURE, ANSWERING YOUR BURNING QUESTIONS A refresher on the importance of understanding chemical hazards, and how the right equipment and education can empower workers and employers to make safer choices WHEN it comes to chemical exposure, almost every workplace in Canada is concerned in some way. From workers in chemical plants to offices where substances like bleach or surface disinfectants may be lying around (especially with increased hygiene protocols around COVID-19), most workers are brought into contact with chemicals in some capacity. Knowing how to properly handle and read labels is an imperative. The Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS), first established in 1988, was updated in 2015 and is regulated on a provincial, territorial and federal level in Canada. WHMIS ensures that employers and workers are kept up to date with information about hazardous products they may come into contact with in the workplace. Safety data sheets (SDSs) for such products are required — they provide information about the products, and advice on safety precautions to take when handling them. WHMIS Health Hazard classes WHMIS 2015 classifies chemical hazards into 2 groups: physical hazards and health hazards. These groups are further broken down by hazard class with 20 physical hazard classes, that describe harm such as fires or explosions, and twelve health hazard classes, defining the types of harm that can occur to humans. Each of the health hazards have their own concerns: "The first category is what they call acute toxicity, which means that it's "The next category is reproductive toxicity. So these are chemicals that are known to harm the reproductive organs in both men and women or can harm an unborn or breastfeeding child," says Hallsworth. "We see these hazards a lot in solvents and auto maintenance products, and in some graffiti removers." The next two categories are specific target organ toxicity — single exposure and repeated exposure. "These are chemicals that can target an organ of your body; so they can harm, for example, your kidneys or your lungs or your liver. And it can be either a single exposure, or it can happen over multiple exposures," she says. Category ten is aspiration (or inhaled) hazard, which targets the lungs. The eleventh category is biohazardous infectious materials, which are very much a concern at the moment due to COVID-19. The last category is health hazards not otherwise classified. These can either be acute, or the result of repeated exposure. Millions of chemicals "Chemicals really do make our jobs easier," says Hallsworth, but it's essential to know how to use them in a safe way. "It's really important for us to remember that the chemical industry has grown by about five per cent every year for the last few years," says Hallsworth. "In the last 30 years, we have so many more products on the market that just weren't there before." This is obviously for our convenience, but it also creates more hazards. And it is very hard for governments to truly regulate what is harmful and what can be sold because there are millions of chemical products out there. And how do you see if someone has been exposed to chemical hazards — of course there are visible injuries such as burns, redness or rashes — but how to measure unseen hazards? "This is super challenging, there's about 180 million chemical substances immediately harmful to your health — either by swallowing or through skin contact, or by inhaling a single or multiple doses over a short period of time," says Lisa Hallsworth, CEO, Rillea Technologies. The next two categories are skin corrosion or irritation, and eye damage or eye irritation. These are products that can burn your skin or damage your eyes, and our data tells us that in a collection of 100 workplace chemicals, over 40 would typically have these hazards. "The fourth category is respiratory or skin sensitivity. These are chemicals that can cause occupational asthma or an allergic reaction," says Hallsworth. Such products include weed killers or expandable foams. The fifth category is germ cell mutagenicity. "These are chemicals that can alter your DNA. The thing about these chemicals is that you can pass the damaged or altered cells along to your children and through generations," says Hallsworth, and include products like gasoline and spray paints. The sixth category, carcinogenicity, includes chemical products that are known or suspected to cause cancer. "It's really important for us to remember that the chemical industry has grown by about five per cent every year for the last few years." Lisa Hallsworth, Rillea Technologies. Source: Health Canada The Workplace Hazardous Materi- als Information System (WHMIS) is Canada's national hazard communication standard WHMIS, first established in 1988, was recently updated in 2015 to include the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling for chemicals (GHS) With this change, WHMIS has been aligned with standards used in the US and other Canadian trading partners To ease the transition between the two systems, WHMIS 2015 imple- mentation will take place over a three-stage transition period WHMIS 1988 VS. WHMIS 2015

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