4.9. Health & Safety
Working conditions and Health & Safety involve numerous requirements for production sites. The corresponding legal regulations are also usually very extensive. In many countries, the working conditions are also regularly checked by the state.
The basic underlying principle is that the employee’s health and safety may not be endangered by the production process orthe production environment. If an incident occurs, it must be documented and appropriate countermeasures must be taken.
General Conditions for Production
The general conditions within the production facilities must be suited for production and may not have any negative impact on employees’ health. This includes factors such as room temperature, ventilation, humidity, light, noise level and cleanliness. The latter applies to the production surfaces, the sanitary facilities as well as the employee accommodations.
Fire Protection
In the event of a fire, all necessary equipment and fire protection mechanisms need to be in place to prevent that employees are badly injured or lose their lives. A sufficient number of well marked emergency exits must be available in the production area. They must be accessible at all times and may not be obstructed or barred. Escape routes are to be marked by lines on the floor and kept free from any obstacles during the entire time of production and until all employees have left the production building. Maps that show the emergency exits, fire extinguishers and escape routes are to be visibly hungin the production rooms.
There must be a sufficient number of fire extinguishers on the production floor, in the canteen and at the employee accommodations. They should be firmly installed, clearly identified and regularly maintained. A fire alarm is to be installed.
The employees should receive regular instructions about how to use the fire extinguishers. Evacuation training must also take place regularly to ensure the safe evacuation of the building in the event of a fire.
Chemicals
The handling of chemicals is often connected with dangers for the employees and therefore requires special safety measures.This concerns the handling of chemicals as well as their storage and disposal.
When handling chemicals, the employer must ensure that employees use protective equipment (e.g. respiratory masks, protective goggles, gloves and rubber boots). Employees that handle chemicals must be trained accordingly and know how to react if they come into direct contact with the chemical (e.g. skin or eyes). All containers that hold chemicals must
be marked as such in the local language. In particular this concerns small containers that are used directly at the workplace and can easily be mistaken for something else (e.g. PET flasks).
When storing chemicals, there specific properties need to be labelled and observed. There are e.g. materials that react with each other and consequently may not be stored next to each other. Others represent a danger for the pollution of the ground or groundwater, and must be stored in a separate containment area.
All this information is described in the so- called material safety data sheets, which each chemical vendor is required to provide. These data sheets should be visibly hung in the storage room and in the production areas in which the chemicals are used.