Chemicals play an important role in life; their benefits are enormous and have been recognized, from pesticides to improve the quality of food production, pharmaceuticals to treat diseases to cleaning products for hygiene... chemicals are essential for a healthy and modern life. Chemicals are also a basic component of industrial production to produce products for life. However, controlling exposure to chemicals in the workplace as well as limiting their release into the environment is a task that every country, employer and employee must fight for constantly.
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What creates the dilemma is the risks associated with exposure to chemicals. Pesticides help increase crop yields but have negative impacts on workers during production and use, in the field or when exposed to excess chemicals. Excess pesticides in production and use also have impacts on the ecological environment for many years after use. Pharmaceuticals that save lives can have negative impacts on workers' health through exposure during production or handling. Detergents make the living environment clean and hygienic but also expose workers to negative impacts both during production and in everyday life. Chemicals have a wide range of negative impacts, from carcinogenic factors to fire and explosion hazards and environmental pollution, for example poisoning aquatic life. Many fires and explosions and environmental disasters are due to poor chemical management.
Over the years, there has been a great deal of research on chemical safety in the field of OSH. Although there have been many achievements in chemical management, many countries, employers and workers have made great efforts to limit their adverse effects, both at the national and regional levels, but this is not enough. Incidents continue to occur and have adverse effects on human health and the environment. Workers who are directly exposed to hazardous chemicals have the right to a safe and clean working environment – they need to be informed, trained and protected.
There is a need for global coordination of scientific and technological advances, developments in chemical production and changes in the organization of work. Likewise, new tools need to be developed to make information on chemical hazards and preventive measures readily available, and ways of organising and using information in a systematic way to ensure the safe use of chemicals in the workplace.
