Managing Chemical Risk: From Excel To The Cloud
By Elizabeth Dionasari, EcoOnline.
Navigating the journey from manual health and safety reporting to a digital system can be daunting. EcoOnline’s Chemical and Product Manager, Elizabeth Dionasari, discusses how making the leap to cloud-based chemical management platforms can revolutionise your organisation.
Up to 1.9 million people die from work-related injury and illness every year, according to the World Health Organisation and it’s a misconception that physical accidents in the workplace are the commonest cause. In fact, they account for less than one-in-five attributed deaths. Ultimately, it’s poor health which kills more people than trips, slips and falls, with exposure to hazardous substances including chemicals posing the biggest risk to occupational health.
Although considerable progress has been made towards reducing the number of workplace health and safety incidents worldwide, there’s still room for improvement. The chemicals industry is no exception, and it’s crucial for businesses wanting to retain a competitive edge to continue to find new ways to guarantee employee wellbeing.
One trusted method is through Chemical Risk Assessments (CRAs), which play a key role in reducing environmental risk from the workplace, but can be a barrier to compliance when incorrectly managed. However, taking more active control of CRAs can help organisations reduce the probability of ill-health impacts due to chemical exposure.
Digital technology, once again is providing the solutions, and future-focused organisations should be looking towards online workplace safety platforms to overcome CRA-related challenges. Currently, H&S directors and managers are spoilt for choice, with a plethora of innovative options available to protect businesses and employees simultaneously, making traditionally static spreadsheets and paper forms redundant.
As such, investing in a robust, cloud-based chemical management system is the best way to achieve compliance with standards and establish an efficient, participation-based chemical management system. It can streamline processes from producing a chemical safety policy to obtaining Safety Data Sheets for inventory products and documenting CRA.
However, it can sometimes be hard to know where to begin, especially if you’re overhauling a longstanding system and protocol. Here are some key steps for organisations to implement for contemporary chemical safety management, and how a cloud-based system can help.
Produce A Safety Policy And Chemical Product Inventory
This is an essential first step in which organisations can outline their chemical safety goals in a definitive and concise way. Clear roles, responsibilities and competency requirements are reflected in the access rights to the online system.
Next, it’s important to create a digital inventory of chemical products in the workplace, to facilitate the easy recording of all substances and making sure information is complete for each listed, flagging any gaps. It means all banned or restricted substances can be quickly identified and eliminated, reducing the number of CRAs needed where substances are being used for the same job across different departments, increasing efficiency responsibly.
Obtain Safety Data Sheets (SDS)
A safety data sheet is a legally required document containing information for the safe on-site handling, use, storage and disposal of all potentially hazardous chemicals.
The ability to populate a single database with all safety data sheets means everyone in the organisation can use one centralised tool to quickly, and easily, access accurate chemical safety information.
This means every SDS can be uploaded and updated seamlessly, ensuring each one contains up-to-the-minute information. It also eliminates user-error as SDS can be automatically refreshed in real time, responding to changes as they occur. This saves time and flags any lapsed SDS to be erased.
Risk Assessment And Review
Risk assessments are a vital, yet fiddly, safety procedure. Managing them through a user-friendly digital interface allows employees to complete Chemical Risk Assessments in real time, streamlining a tedious form-filling process using template formats and drop-down fields. This guarantees any CRAs are comprehensively recorded and easily distinguishable from SDS.
Once inventories have been drawn up and CRAs and SDS have been filled out, resulting actions must line up with agreed upon safety goals. By having everything available on one platform, managers can rapidly review and implement the required controls, and reinforce them throughout departments.
This online system contains a wealth of information, which can link with QR codes on substances and equipment, allowing workers to rapidly access relevant documents and guidance about the controls needed.
Finally, once the necessary controls have been implemented, it’s time to review. The review process is an essential part of keeping the organisation’s health and safety goals fresh, allowing operations to be continuously updated in line with best practice.
At the end of the day, digital chemical management allows businesses to be proactive about their policies, making sure that any procurement of new substances is in line with guidelines and that any suggested improvements can be easily shared across departments.
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