2 - COMMITMENT AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Chrysotile asbestos has been proven to be a highly valuable industrial material. Its products and applications have significantly enhanced living standards worldwide. However, its past misuse and mishandling has, to some extent, overshadowed its many benefits. Today, workers, customers, governments and environmental activists have made it very clear that companies that use chrysotile asbestos must be responsible for the safe use and disposal of their products.
Chrysotile asbestos has not been singled out for special attention in this respect. All industries, which produce or use substances which could present risks to public or worker health and the general environment, have come to understand that health, safety and the environmental impact of their activities and products have to be carefully monitored and controlled.
Product stewardship is one of the new phrases that has entered the lexicon of business executives. Reduced to its essence, product stewardship is a term used by producers and manufacturers to describe the various activities designed to provide users with specific information on possible hazards and inform them of the ways in which their products should be used without undue health, safety and environmental risks. The scope of product stewardship must embrace the entire life cycle of a product or process from initial research and development to manufacture, use and ultimate disposal or recycling.
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ILO Convention 162 Safety in the Use of Asbestos indicates clearly the responsibilities of employers when using asbestos or handling asbestos products. They establish the baseline of any corporate or industry product stewardship or preventive and control program and include the following:
€ Participate, consult and cooperate with government and workers' organizations to give effect to national regulations;
€ Comply with national regulations;
€ Establish a prevention program with the participation of workers;
€ Implement engineering controls to prevent exposure;
€ Reduce exposure to as low a level as is reasonably practicable;
€ Establish procedures to deal with emergency situations;
€ Establish written procedures for the training of workers;
€ Complete information about the health hazards related to work;
€ Measure airborne concentrations of fibres and inform the workers and inspectors;
€ Arrange for medical examinations at no cost to the worker;
€ Full disclosure to the worker of the results of examinations;
€ Notify government of certain types of work involving asbestos;
€ Adequately label the container or the product;
€ Provide respiratory equipment and protective clothing;
€ Safe disposal of waste and prevention of pollution;
€ Provide material safety data sheets to all users of asbestos fibres and asbestos products.
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2.2 - SENIOR MANAGEMENT
: THE BUCK STOPS HERE!
Senior management is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the above measures are taken. The most important first step is a conscious commitment to establish a preventive and control program and to provide continued guidance and resources.
Commitment means a pledge to respect the health and well-being of others. Management must take firm action in stating its intentions and making them known to all employees. There should be a short statement from the president of your company addressing the matter of dust control and stating the actions that will be taken. The asbestos producers located in Québec, Canada have made this commitment and copies of their statements are attached (see Appendix-I).
As well, a letter should be circulated among all employees, clearly identifying goals to be achieved and a schedule for realizing these goals. Furthermore, management must be willing to commit resources to achieve the goals it has set forth.
To achieve the goals, management and employees must agree to work together in improving safety and health conditions. Employees must participate and become an integral part of improving safety and health conditions. They must also show their willingness to cooperate and their adaptability towards improving the work environment.
Keys to Success
Success of an effective environmental program depends on management challenging itself and the employees recognizing the benefits that all should receive. It should be a partnership in pooling each other's abilities toward a common goal. That means management and employees should set attainable objectives than can be extended as work progresses.
Senior Management
Senior Management is responsible for any deterioration of stated policies. If they do not take immediate action to correct situations, they are at fault since it is in their power to correct the situation.
Management, at any level, should intervene immediately when it sees an incorrect practice by an employee, thus showing the importance of working safely. This involvement by senior management should not be in a punitive manner but as a teaching aid to employees, thus improving relations and assisting employees in recognizing the importance of safety.
Administrative Systems
The president should delegate the responsibilities relating to the preventive and control program to a senior manager. This manager should have full access to information, such as monitoring results, risk assessments, reports, etc.
A committee for safety and hygiene should be established and include representatives from management and the employees. This committee for safety and hygiene should give particular attention to the health risks related to the use of asbestos.
Periodical meetings (monthly) of the committee should be organized and should be the occasion for a frank and complete interchange of information and consultation in regards to:
1. The nature of the harmful asbestos fibre to which the employees are exposed and the risks associated with such exposure;
2. The results of workplace monitoring;
3. The protective measures that should be adopted;
4. The results of audits in the factory;
5. Itemized area of concern with intended action to correct or analyze further.
Education and Training
In order for an employee to be able to act preventively against asbestos-related risks and follow adequate personal protective measures, he/she should receive ample information and training.
The method to be used for the transfer of information should include the written as well as the verbal form, and the language used should be familiar to all employees.
Rigorous supervision should be maintained until new employees are fully trained. The above also applies to employees who have been assigned to a new workplace.
The training should contain at least the following main points:
1. Potential hazards caused by asbestos dust;
2. Smoking as a potential single risk factor;
3. General preventive measures;
4. Behaviour in the workplace where exposure to asbestos might occur;
5. Workplaces and job requiring special protection measures;
6. Adequate behaviour in emergency situations - causes in which special protective measures are necessary;
7. Individual and collective protection equipment;
8. The correct use of vacuum cleaning, laundry, changing rooms and eating area;
9. Correct use of anti-dust protective respirators;
10. Importance of regular medical check-ups;
11. Need to comply strictly with the guidelines on the controlled-use of asbestos;
12. Meaning of the illustrative and written signs.
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1. Defining problem areas (monitoring)
€ Established monitoring strategy
€ Workplace monitoring static sampling
€ Workplace monitoring personal sampling
2. Search for causes and ways to solve problems (development)
€ Cleaning facilities
€ Preventive maintenance of equipment
€ Vacuum cleaning equipment
€ Prevention program
€ Projects
€ Information gathering
3. Prepare program of implementation in stages
€ Training
€ Personal protection measures
€ Preventive measures
€ Procedures when the workplace limit value is exceeded
€ Step-by-step control of area.
There should be no altering of data, and employees are entitled to know the real level of exposure and management's plan to correct the problem areas. On the other hand, management needs to know all the facts and employees have a responsibility to cooperate fully.
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2.3 - OUTREACH PROGRAM FOR CUSTOMERS AND USERS
Corporate responsibility for prevention and control does not stop at the plant gate. Companies manufacturing asbestos-containing products are obliged, at a minimum, to label their products and provide a material safety data sheet. The label must conform with national requirements and at a minimum those set-out in the ILO Code of Practice "Safety in the Use of Asbestos":
All asbestos-containing products should have an internationally recognized warning symbol designating the product as asbestos-containing and warning the user that inhalation of asbestos dust may cause serious damage to health.
All material to be used on site and containing asbestos should be labelled in such a way as to alert the user to the potential health hazards involved and to the appropriate precautions to be taken.
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Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS)
In terms of the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) (see Appendix-II), it should contain the following information:
1. The name of the product;
2. The name and the address of the producer;
3. The type of asbestos contained;
4. The health risks, including the dangerous properties of asbestos;
5. Detailed procedures to clean and eliminate without risk any asbestos that might have escaped or been spilled, inclusive of the labelling and the adequate disposal procedures of containers with waste and contaminated materials;
6. The requirements for the personal protection equipment;
7. Precautions to be taken with the handling of the product.
Most corporate or industry product stewardship programs go well beyond these minimum requirements. For example, detailed safety instructions, complete with pictogrammes, should accompany chrysotile-based products whenever they are sold (see Annex-III). Active lines of communication should be established with distributors and users to ensure that they are aware of the safety precautions to be taken. In the case where installation and removal is undertaken by contractors, periodic training and/or qualification sessions should be organized to promote the use of safe tools, work practices and proper waste disposal methods.
In conclusion, everyone shares in the responsibilities and commitment to bring about an effective program for prevention and control. Cooperation is the key to success.
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