4 The safe handling of hazardous materials is one of the most important tasks for the protection of the health of a company’s employees. The employer has many obligations. It must determine the potential hazard of the respective materials applied, specify the necessary work procedures and take suitable protective measures to safeguard the employees from health risks and protect the environment from damage caused by the use of these materials, following the STOP principle. Substitution of hazardous materials The rule of substitution generally applies: substituting hazardous materials with non-hazardous or less hazardous ones is the best way to avoid the risk of damage caused by hazardous materials. Many hazardous materials cannot be replaced or cannot yet be replaced or turned into less hazardous forms of use. Therefore, in most cases technical measures need to be taken to protect against the influences of hazardous materials. Explosive Compressed gases Flammable Category 1 Flammable Category 2 Flammable Category 3 Oxidising Category 1, 2, 3 Acute toxicity Category 1 Acute toxicity Category 2 Acute toxicity Category 3 Corrosive Category 1 Acute toxicity Category 4 Corrosive Category 2 Skin irritant CRM* Category 1A, 1B, 2 Respiratory sensitization Environmental pollutant Hazardous to the aquatic environment Explosive Non-existent Extremely flammable Highly flammable Flammable Oxidising Very toxic Very toxic resp. toxic Toxic resp. harmful Corrosive Harmful Irritant Non-existent Dangerous to the environment Non-existent no symbol GHS/CLP GefStoffV CMR*: C = carcinogenic, M = mutagenic, R = toxic to reproduction no symbol no symbol no symbol no symbol (German Ordinance on Hazardous Substances) Hazardous materials must be marked with hazard pictograms. In order to standardise the labelling of hazardous materials, previously different worldwide, the Globally Harmonised System (GHS) was introduced by the CLP regulation of the EU with a transitional period from 1st December 2010 for materials and from 1st June 2015 for mixtures. During this period, both the valid orange symbols and the new red and white GHS pictograms will be seen. The allocation of some of the hazards change, as different labelling systems from different countries have to be standardised. Instead of the previously used R codes, H codes are now used for the type and severity of the hazard, and P codes replace the S codes for the provision of safety information. Advantage: The new codes are more specific than their predecessors. 1. Identifying hazardous materials and handling them correctly Sample
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