Polish System of Assessing Occupational Risk Posed by Chemical Compounds

摘要

Risk assessment is the overall process of estimating the magnitude of risk and deciding whether or not the risk is tolerable or acceptable. The process of risk assessment is a systematic examination of all aspects of work undertaken to consider what could cause injury or harm, whether the hazards could be eliminated and, if not, what preventive or protective measures are, or should be, in place to control the risks. According to the Polish Labour Code, employers are legally obligated to provide workers with information about occupational health and safety risks. Assessment of occupational risk posed by chemical compounds is a very complicated problem because of traceable concentrations and multicomponent mixture of these compounds. Maximum allowable concentrations (MAC) and the results of determining chemical compounds in workplace air are used for assessing occupational exposure and risk. In Poland MAC for chemical compounds are established by the Interdepartmental Commission for Maximum Allowable Concentrations and Intensities for Harmful to Health Agents in the Working Environment. The Commission includes representatives of health and labour administration, various sectors of the industry, trade unions, and research institutes in occupational medicine and work safety. MAC values refer to airborne concentrations of substances and represent conditions to which it is believed workers may be exposed during their whole productive life, without any adverse health effects to them (also when retired) or to the next generations, either. According to the type of biological effects, the following categories of MAC values are used: NDS - MAC (TWA): MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE CONCENTRATIONS - the time-weighted average concentration for a conventional 8-hr workday and a 42-hr workweek, NDS - MAC (STEL): MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE SHORT-TERM CONCENTRATIONS - the short-term exposure limit being an average concentration for a exposure, which may last together no longer than 30 min during a workday and NDS - MAC(C): MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE CEILING CONCENTRATIONS - concentration, which should not be exceeded even momentarily. MAC are based on information available from experimental human and animal studies, as well as from industrial experience. For carcinogenic agents, the Commission has adopted the socially accepted risk at the level of 10~(-3) to 10~(-4).