In March 2020, the Ministry of Innovation and Technology issued a notice on the application of regulations related to exposure records for hazardous substances. This was done because a number of inaccuracies, misunderstandings, inaccuracies in interpretation and problems arose in connection with the register.

Therefore, the Occupational Safety and Health Department of the Ministry has published the following legal opinion.

XCIII of 1993 on labor protection. Act (hereinafter: Law) 63/A. §, which requires a record of workers' workplace exposure to hazardous substances, not a new provision, this obligation is in accordance with Act No. 25/2000 on the chemical safety of workplaces. (IX. 30.) EüM-SzCsM joint decree (hereinafter: EüMSzCsM joint decree) was previously included in Section 7(4) point d) and Section 7(7). Since the entry into force of the EüM-SzCsM decree on January 1, 2001, employers must keep records of data on employees' workplace exposure:

"7. § (4) The employer ensures that

…

d) the employee the registered data on their workplace exposure shall be kept for 10 years after the termination of the employment relationship, and for 40 years in the case of carcinogenic substances, and the employee and their representatives shall have access to them.

…

(7) The employer has exposed workers the fact of exposure and, in case of measurement, the measurement data, the time of the measurement, as well as the measurement protocols and documents as an attachment, must be recorded and documented."

On February 7, 2020, Decree No. 5/2020 on the protection of the health and safety of workers exposed to chemical pathogenic factors entered into force. (II. 6.) ITM Decree (hereinafter: ITM Decree), at the same time the joint EüM-SzCsM decree became invalid.

The new 63/A of the Mvt. §-aa regulates the exposure register for employees to be kept by employers in order to protect the health of employees, prevent occupational diseases caused by hazardous substances, and clarify the occupational origin of an occupational disease that may occur in the future.

 Mvt. 63/A. According to § (2), the register must contain:

the) the employee's name, place of birth, time,

b) the name of the hazardous substance causing the exposure,

c) the employee's daily, weekly and annual exposure time,

d) the measured data of the exposure concentration per substance.

The following questions arose in connection with the application of the regulations on the exposure record:

What is a registrable hazardous substance?

 Exposure records must be kept for all workers who are hazardous

are or may be exposed to substances. According to Section 87.12 of the Mvt

"hazardous material"-is considered to be, so a record must be kept of the following materials

about your exposure:

a) "Regulation 1272/2008/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council [CLP] Based on physical,

health hazards or both classified as hazardous based on properties

material or

b) the chemical substance which, although it does not meet the conditions of the classification defined in point a), nevertheless poses a risk to the safety or health of employees due to its physico-chemical, chemical or toxicological properties and method of use or presence in the workplace, including all chemical substances for which the Decree on the Protection of the Health and Safety of Workers Exposed to Chemical Pathological Factors sets a limit value."

Based on the above exposure records must not only be kept for those hazardous substances that have a limit value, but about all chemical substances that pose a risk to the safety or health of employees.

Does the exposure register only cover hazardous substances or hazardous mixtures?

 § 12/A of Mvt. 87. based on point a hazardous mixture is a mixture or solution containing one or more hazardous substances, which during classification according to CLP a physical health hazards or is classified as dangerous for both properties, therefore by definition, the registration obligation applies to the hazardous mixture.

THE environmental hazards only No records need to be kept of substances or mixtures classified as hazardous.

The in addition to exposure records to the employer based on § 10 of the ITM regulation you must also keep records of hazardous substances and hazardous mixtures used in the workplace according to the REACH regulation for material types that can be identified with a safety data sheet.

The safety data sheets also contain information on the composition of the dangerous mixture in an identifiable manner, so its repeated inclusion in the exposure register is an unnecessary additional burden. Regarding the exposure register and the types of substances that can be identified with the safety data sheet registers must be kept in such a way that it is possible to identify which hazardous substance(s) each employee is or may be exposed to at the workplace (including hazardous substance components in hazardous mixtures).

The rules related to the exposure register for hazardous substances fully follow the exposure register required for carcinogenic or mutagenic substances, Act No. 63/B. its structure and regulation detailed in paragraph (2) of §

This is a favorable change from the point of view of prevention, because for category 2 carcinogens also ("presumably human carcinogens"), as dangerous substances, the registration rules apply in the same way as 1A. or 1B. category carcinogenic substances ("known or suspected carcinogens").

The register with the same content is especially important if, during the review of the classification according to CLP and the reclassification of dangerous substances, a previously category 2 carcinogen is classified as 1A. or 1B. are categorized. In this case, Act No. 26/2000 on the protection against occupational carcinogens and the prevention of health damage caused by them. (IX. 30.) EüM decree must also be applied. Possibly in the future it is easier to clarify the occupational origin of the cancer that occurs, if exposure to hazardous substances and carcinogenic/mutagenic substances is registered in the same data area.

In the continuation of our article, we will receive answers to the following questions based on the opinion of the Labor Protection Department of the Ministry of Innovation and Technology:  

• Should the exposure record be kept at the job level or for all affected employees?
• How to record the exposure time?
• If a very small amount of the hazardous substance or hazardous mixture is used for a short period of time, the measured data of the exposure concentration must be provided, is measurement necessary?

Source: ommf.gov.hu

Image source: https://unsplash.com/s/photos/test-tube