Promoting Resource Efficiency in Small & Medium size ... - UNEP

products and services are being delivered to and for what purposes.
A good way to start gathering this information is to contact the
person responsible for sales in your company. You may also want
to contact customers direct and ask them for further information.
Skin contact
Routes of exposure
Inhalation
• Discuss and decide on the level of detail to be
included in the diagram.
• List all of the steps and activities in the process,
remembering that some will occur simultaneously.
Ingestion
Eye contact
• Arrange the activities in sequence. Make sure to
include activities undertaken by your direct suppliers, in the
transportation of your chemical products, byproducts and waste
materials and their use, and wastewater treatment and disposal.
• Discuss the sequence of activities with the relevant people in
your company and confirm that this is correct.
• Review the flowchart with your workers and your business
partners.
- Workers and supervisors
- Suppliers
- Transporters
- Customers
- Other relevant stakeholders
Check if they agree that the process is drawn accurately.
B: IDENTIFY THE CHEMICALS, THEIR QUANTITIES AND THE
HAZARDS INVOLVED IN THE PROCESS
• Identify the chemicals involved in the first activity of the process
• Mark them on your flowchart
• Identify the quantities of the chemicals usually involved or present
for this activity
• Mark them on your flowchart
• Identify the hazards associated with the chemicals and the activity
- such as the likelihood of fire, explosion, corrosion, acute toxicity,
skin or eye irritation and other health hazards, and damage to the
environment. You will find that most of this information is clearly
explained in hazard/risk labels and Material Safety Data Sheets
(MSDS) that should be made available from your suppliers.
• Make sure to identify the hazards for all the chemicals involved in
each activity. If you do not have information on all the chemicals,
contact your suppliers and ask them to provide you with the
MSDS and other relevant hazard and risk information
• Mark the hazards on your flowchart
• Repeat until you have drawn a flowchart for the entire process.
You will notice immediately that information concerning activities
being undertaken outside your company will be relatively harder to
get, compared to activities being conducted within your company.
Do not get discouraged and if necessary, ask for help from your
business partners
Step 4: Identify health, environmental, social and economic
risks
Harm that can be caused to human health by chemicals includes, for
example, skin irritations, respiratory problems or even cancer. In the
environment, chemicals can harm animal populations and disturb the
natural functions of ecosystems. The risks of all kinds of chemicals need
to be assessed to determine which safety measures are necessary to
prevent harm. When new information on a chemical becomes available,
the risk assessment should be reviewed and, where necessary, revised
to ensure the maximum safety possible at all times.
Figure 42: Routes of exposure 92
1: Create a risk assessment team
Identifying and understanding the relationship between your chemical
hazards and the potential impacts of an accident on the site, the community,
business partners, clients and the environment is not a task that can be done
by one person alone. At this stage, identify staff members that may help you
in a simple but thorough preliminary assessment of the risks related to your
chemical hazards.
2: Review hazard hotspots
Go back to your process flowchart and the hazard hotspots you have
identified and marked in your flowchart. Take into account available
information and start with the hotspots you have identified that relate
directly to your business.
Pay particular attention to areas or process steps where you may be storing
or handling large quantities of hazardous chemicals.
Ask yourself:
• Are very toxic chemicals present?
• Are fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides being stored or handled in
your business?
• Are you storing or handling butane, propane, ammonia or chlorine?
• Could hazardous chemicals react with other chemicals nearby,
or with water or with the atmosphere to create other hazardous
chemicals?
In order to identify potential opportunities for reducing risks, walk around
your facility and look for:
• Places where you see chemical substances spilled on the floor
• Places where you see dust clouds created during transferring or
weighing operations
• Lids that are not tightly sealed where the contents are exposed to air,
humidity, etc.
• Containers that are partially or completely uncovered where fumes
may escape
• Chemical containers such as bags, drums, bottles, tins, etc. that are
dented, damaged or defective
• Chemical packaging that is deteriorating due to leakage, damage,
floor water, humidity, etc.
• Containers that have no labels or where the labels are damaged
• Chemical containers that are being used for other purposes, e.g.,
storing water, storing and transferring other materials
• Situations where workers have created and are using makeshift
92) Victorian Workcover Authority, A step by step guide for managing chemicals in the workplace, 2001
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