Assessment of risks to workers’ health and safety from the presence of chemical, carcinogenic and mutagenic agents in a large chemical manufacturing plant

2023 / Advice on health and safety in the workplace / Industries

The chemical, carcinogenic and mutagenic risk assessment was carried out on a large chemical plant:

  • 10 production facilities;
  • 50 productions;
  • 100 raw materials, over 200 finished products and more than 40 intermediate products analysed taking into account the different exposures in the different productions;
  • 3 laboratories with 36 methods of analysis performed and more than 200 products analysed.

The assessment took into account each hazardous component of the chemical agents present and was carried out separately:

  • per individual activity
  • per individual production
  • per plant

The risk assessment of chemical, carcinogenic and mutagenic agents was carried out pursuant to Title IX, Art. 223 and Art. 236 of Legislative Decree 81/08 as amended and supplemented, following

  • for chemical agents, the Mo.Va.Ris.Ch. model proposed by the Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy Regions implemented in the Archimede software (EPC publisher)
  •  for carcinogenic agents, the methodology proposed by ISPRA within the ‘Guidelines for the evaluation of risk from exposure to Hazardous Chemical Agents and Carcinogenic and Mutagenic Agents‘.