Regulating Chemical Risks

Regulatory system and r sponsible bodies. The regulation of occupational h th and safety in Italy is based on both public health and l our policy and therefore includes the involvement of the institutions of both these larger systems.  

Public health. Preventive occupational health and safety is a function of the National Health Service Servizio Sanitaria Nationale - SSN). The Ministry of Health Ministero della Sanitaf is the central body and its main tasks consist of the national planning and co-ordination of all matters regarding public health. 

Public agencies (monitored by the Ministry of Health) act as technical-scientific bodi for the SSN. They include  

Labour polity. The Mnistry of Labour and Social Affairs Ministere del Lavoro e delle Politiche Socialif plans and co-ordinates national policy and strategies on labour and employment. The Labour Inspectorate is part of the Ministry. The main bodies involved in health and safety under the auspices of the Ministry of Labour md Social Affairs are  

National structure and institutions involved with setting OELs, Until recently there was no national committee/advisory board or other regulatory body established doling exclusively with the establishment of OELs. The only (historical) example of such a body existed in 1975, when the former ENPI Ente Nazionale Prevenzione Infortuni -National Agency for Prevention of Accidents at Work) issued a provisional list of recommended OELs, which was never approved at national level. ENPI was shut down in 1979, after the National Health Service was installed in 1978. 

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J. Eriksson et al. (eds.), Regulating Chemical Risks European and Global Challenges, DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-9428-5 l, Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010... 

Regulating Chemical Risk REACH in a Global Governance Perspective... 

Other in )ortant pieces of Europ n legislation on controlling trade in chemicals that contribute to the framework for regulating chemical risks in die EU ... 

Regulating Chemical Risks — The German Health and Safety System in Outline... 

In this section we consider the second substance that is the focus of our detailed attention concerning the role of OELs in regulating chemical risks. We start with some general information concerning the nature of the hazards of toluene that have led to the setting of an OEL. This is followed by an outline of its use in the industries on which we have focussed and a presentation of some of the main sources of information on surveillance of compliance with exposure limits. Finally, we present some case-studies of policy and practice in selected companies whose personnel we interviewed in the course of our fieldwork. 

A further challenge to an empirical investigation of the role of OELs in enforcement is that the present structure of Labour Inspectorate databases means that a comprehensive analysis of enforcement activity, in as far as it addresses efforts to regulate chemical risk management and the inspectorate s use of OELs in this respect is not possible. Therefore some indicative results of local investigations undertaken expressly for this study are presented to supplement the rather meagre evidence that can be gained from examination of national data. 

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