Control Banding of
Chemicals at Work
The principle of control banding was first applied to dangerous
chemicals, chemical mixtures, and fumes. The control banding
process emphasizes the controls needed to prevent hazardous
substances from causing harm to people at work. The greater the
potential for harm, the greater the degree of control needed to
manage the situation and make the risk “acceptable.”
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The Problems with Hazardous
Chemicals
• Increasing attention has been focused on the potential
ill effects to human health resulting from exposure to
man-made chemicals that find their way into the
environment. Due to their particularly hazardous
characteristics, one group of chemicals that has raised
particular concern is the Persistent Bioaccumulative
Toxins (PBT). A PBT may be a chemical 'parent
compound,' or a secondary chemical that is the result
of metabolism or environmental degradation. PBTs
tend to have long half-lives (the amount of time it
takes for 50% of a substance to break down, or be
excreted) in organisms (including the human organism)
and in the environment
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Complicated
Determination of the toxic effect of chemicals in humans can be quite
complicated for the following reasons:
• It is difficult to determine effects from one specific chemical when
there are many, since we are not exposed to single chemicals, but
to mixtures of chemicals that may have additive effects.
• Potential synergistic effects of these chemical combinations are
difficult to study.
• The exposure may be one time and acute or else chronic and for
extended periods of time, so different dosages must be considered.
• Some health effects may manifest long after the initial exposure.
• We may not have methods sensitive enough to measure some of
the more subtle effects.
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What is control banding?
• As a safety and health professional, you know
that certain chemicals are hazardous, but
there's often no way to know the actual risk to
workers when they use a chemical under a
variety of conditions and tasks.
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Put it on a Page
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Ask yourself
• The MSDS or product label explains general hazards and exposure
limits, but it can't tell you if your workers are really in any danger
under special conditions. For example, what happens when workers
mix or use chemicals together? Don't the hazards change? How can
you know?
• Control banding is a system used to assess and manage workplace
risks. It is a process that matches a control measure (e.g.,
ventilation, engineering controls, containment, etc.) to a range or
"band" of hazards and exposures (e.g., skin/eye irritation, very
toxic, carcinogenic, etc.). The control banding system groups
chemicals according to similar physical or chemical characteristics,
how the chemical will be handled or processed, and what the
anticipated exposure is expected to be. This system then
determines a set of useful controls that will prevent harm to
workers.
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Similar in thought
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What?
Key Definitions
• A "risk" in the context of workplace chemicals is a hazard
(e.g., corrosive, carcinogen, skin irritant) plus the exposure
potential (e.g., how exposed, how long, how much). In
many workplaces, the hazard is known but not the actual
exposure potential.
• A "band" is a level of risk for a chemical associated with a
specific work task. It is graphically illustrated in a computer
model as a slice or "band" of a pie chart with several
concentric circles. One slice may be indicated in red,
meaning highly hazardous with multiple controls required;
or green, meaning low hazard and use a single control such
as general ventilation.
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• For this reason, it is commonly associated with
chemical exposures but other similar systems are being
developed for other workplace hazards. As such,
several control banding models or systems have been
developed. Control banding is also referred to as a "risk
management tool" or "toolbox".
• The overall goal of control banding is to help
workplaces by providing an "easy to understand" and
"easy to apply" approach to controlling hazards. The
control banding model is meant to be used by small-
and medium- sized workplaces that have limited
expertise in workplace health and safety, industrial
hygiene or chemical control. This principle is also being
examined for its use with chemicals and products that
do not have occupational exposure limits (OELs),
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• Control banding is based on the idea that while
there are many chemicals that workers can be
exposed to, in practical terms, there are only a
limited number of common approaches to hazard
control to protect workers. These approaches are
grouped into levels based on how much
protection the approach offers (with "stringent"
controls being the most protective). The greater
the potential for harm, the greater the steps
needed for control.
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• Products are first placed into a "hazard band".
Factors used to decide which band a product
belongs to include:
• Toxicity of the product (how "poisonous" a
product is)
• Ease of exposure (e.g. how easy it is for the
product to get into a worker's body such as how
fine (dusty) or volatile a product is)
• Type of work process being used (e.g. grinding vs.
transferring)
• Duration of exposure (amount of time doing the
task)
• Quantity of product used in task (small vs. large
amounts)
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Regulatory Activity
• Global HazCom System
– Proposal to be issued “soon”
– Likely to adopt GHS hazard criteria for describing
health and physical hazards of chemicals (statements,
pictograms, signal words)
– Proposal will solicit comment for economic and
regulatory analyses (number of products that will need
new labels or MSDSs, cost to implement GHS,
electronic tools that would be useful, etc.)
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International
• Chemical Control Banding
– International Labour Office (ILO)
• Partners include OSHA and World Health Org. (WHO)
– Chemical Control Banding is a method of assigning a
chemical to a “band” of exposure control measures
based on its hazard classification, the amount of
the chemical in use, and its volatility/dustiness
– Rationale – impossibility of assigning a PEL to
every chemical makes control banding more
practicable approach to exposure control
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GHS Overview
• Key Guiding Principles of the Harmonization
Process
– Protection will not be reduced
– Will be based on intrinsic properties (hazards) of
chemicals
– All types of chemicals will be covered
– All systems will have to be changed
– Involvement of all stakeholders should be ensured
– Comprehensibility must be addressed
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International
• Chemical Control Banding
– 4 Control Strategies
• good industrial hygiene practices
• local exhaust ventilation
• process enclosure
• professional industrial hygiene consultation
– Specific operating knowledge and professional judgment are
required for implementation of the best "reasonably
practicable" combination of controls to minimize risks to
workers
– American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) paper
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GHS Hazard Classification
• Physical Hazards (16)
– Explosives – Pyrophoric Liquids
– Pyrophoric Solids
– Flammable Gases
– Self-Heating Substances
– Flammable Aerosols
– Substances which, in
– Oxidizing Gases contact with water, emit
– Gases Under Pressure flammable gases
– Flammable Liquids – Oxidizing Liquids
– Flammable Solids – Oxidizing Solids
– Self-Reactive – Organic Peroxides
Substances – Corrosive to Metals
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GHS Hazard Classification
• Health Hazards (10)
– Acute Toxicity – Reproductive Toxicology
– Skin Corrosion/Irritation – Target Organ Systemic
– Serous Eye Toxicity – Single
Damage/Eye Irritation Exposure
– Respiratory or Skin – Target Organ Systemic
Sensitization Toxicity – Repeated
– Germ Cell Mutagenicity Exposure
– Carcinogenicity – Aspiration Toxicity
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GHS Hazard Classification
• Hazardous to the Aquatic Environment
– Acute aquatic toxicity
– Chronic aquatic toxicity
• Bioaccumulation potential
• Rapid degradability
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GHS Hazard Communication
• Labels (cont.)
– Nine symbols
• Includes
“Environment”
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In a tidy world
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Control Banding Approach
Generic concept used for chemicals
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4
Barrier Banding; Risk Levels
Example for practical injury prevention management
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6
What are some limitations of control
banding?
• Control banding as a method is not fully validated yet -
there is need for continued testing of control
recommendations and the actual exposure to workers.
There is no universally adopted (i.e. no single "correct")
method of control banding, and each method has
limitations. As such, employers should still monitor and
evaluate any control measures used in the workplace.
• Recommendations developed by a control banding system
may need to be reviewed by a health and safety
professional to ensure that the control strategy is
appropriate, adequately designed and properly installed
and maintained to keep worker exposure within
acceptable limits. Monitoring is also required to check
that the control methods are working properly.
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