Handling of dyes & Chemicals-method & precautions: Part-2 (Safety Program)

A chemical safety programme for textile processing should include the following major elements:

(a) Risk assessment: to identify the hazards and evaluate their risks in the processes. Risk assessment is a process to evaluate what chemicals or processes would cause harm at work in terms of frequency of exposure, likelihood and consequence. Based on the assessment results, suitable safety measures could be developed to reduce the risks.

(b) Control of risks: to adopt and maintain suitable preventive and protective measures to control the risks associated with the identified hazards; The primary consideration is to adopt appropriate preventive measures to directly control the hazards at source, such as by elimination or substitution. For instance, certain azo dyes likely to form carcinogenic substances during dyeing process should be replaced by non-hazardous or less hazardous ones. These carcinogenic substances may also be regulated by the Factories and Industrial Undertakings (Carcinogenic Substances) Regulations. In case elimination or substitution is not possible, segregation of the chemicals or the process is an effective safety measure. Protective measures such as the use of personal protective equipment should only be considered as a supplementary means in addition to engineering controls to minimize workers’ exposure to the hazards.