Summary

In accordance with Section 60 of the 2005 Safety Health and Welfare at Work Act, the Health and Safety Authority invites comments from interested parties on the attached draft revision of the 2018 Code of Practice for the Chemical Agents Regulations. The HSA requests that comments on the draft be submitted to consultation@hsa.ie before close of business on Friday 30th August 2019.

Background

• updates and replaces the '2018 Code of Practice for the Chemical Agents Regulations', based on the latest available relevant scientific information, and
• Fulfils the commitment as stated in the foreword of the 2018 Code of Practice to update the Code of Practice periodically, where appropriate.

The draft 2020 Code of Practice includes the following updates / amendments:

• Schedule 1 now lists EU Binding and Indicative occupational exposure limit values (BOELVs & IOELVs) only.
• Schedule 1 has been updated to include all new Binding OELVs following amendments to the Carcinogens and Mutagens Directive (CMD) listed below. All updates included in Schedule 1 of the 2020 Code of Practice are in bold for ease of reference. The CMD amending directives add new limits and amend existing OELVs in the original CMD. It requires Members States to establish, or amend, their national exposure limits to match those in the Directives. The series of EU Commission amending directives are listed below:
  • EU Directive 2017/2398 [Wave 1]
  • EU Directive 2019/130 [Wave 2]
• Schedule 2 now contains an Advisory list of OELVs derived from sources other than EU Commission Directives, such as Threshold Limit Values (TLVs) from the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH). This is a key change from previous Codes of Practice. Previously these were combined with limit values from EU Directives and no differentiation was made. All updates included in Schedule 2 of the 2020 Code of Practice are in bold for ease of reference.
• Schedule 3 has been updated, to list possible changes to current OELV values and new entrants for the next iteration of the Code of Practice. This includes substances from a third amendment to CMD EU Directive 2019/983 and the 5th list of IOELVs.
• Schedule 4 - the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) Numbers Index.
• Identified errata from the 2018 Code of Practice have been addressed

Public Consultation

The draft 2020 Code of Practice for the Chemical Agent Regulations was approved to go for public consultation by the Board of the Health and Safety Authority on 21st June 2019. Having assessed inputs received through the consultation process, the Board will then consider the document for final approval. It is intended to publish the approved Code of Practice by January 2020.

Changes in this edition

An Explanatory Note and Analysis document has been developed to explain the key changes in this revised Code of Practice for the Chemical Agents Regulations.

• Download the Draft Code of Practice for the Chemical Agents Regulations.
• Download the Explanatory Note and Analysis Document to the draft 2020 Code of Practice for the Chemical Agents Regulations.

Those wishing to make submissions are advised that submissions may be made available for viewing by the Public, with the exception of information referring to the personal / home addresses of individuals making submissions, at the close of the Consultation Process and at the same time as the Authority publishes its response to the Consultation Process, in accordance with the Health and Safety Authority’s Consultation Policy, which can be read here (available at this link).. It should also be noted that the Authority is subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2014 and the Data Protection Acts 1998 and 2003.