Safety legislation today

In 1970 the Robens Committee was set up to review the provision made for the safety and health of persons in the course of their employment. At that time safety requirements were contained in a variety of enactments (as the list of relevant statutory provisions in schedule 1 of HSWA indicates). An estimated five million employees had no statutory protection. Protection was uneven. Administration was diverse and enforcement powers were considered inadequate. The wording and intent of the legislation were not directed towards personal involvement of the worker and in parts it was obsolete. 

HSWA corrects many of these defects. General principles are enacted, to be supplemented by regulations. The provisions apply to employments generally to protect persons at work and those at risk from work activities. 

The Act was intended to be wide to facilitate changing circumstances. Examples of development are the sanctions for non-compliance and the use of the extensive powers to make regulations under s. 15 and Schedule 3. 

Magistrates may now impose a fine up to 20000 for breach of ss. 2-6 HSWA or for a breach of an improvement or prohibition notice or a court 

Sections 2-6 were selected because they contain the main health and safety duties of those responsible for workplace safety. It was considered that a company charged with breach of one of these sections is probably responsible for a systematic failure to meet these general duties and is putting its employees and possibly others at risk. Failure to comply with a notice indicates a deliberate flouting of health and safety law. 

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The Medicines Act, together with the associated EU legislation and EU and ICH guidelines, should ensure that the safety of drugs made to the highest quality, the acceptability of their risk/benefit ratio and the promotion of correct information to the prescribers and consumers are the dominant features of the controls that operate today. 

Today in Europe, the term safety valve is used to describe Safety Valves, Safety/ Relief-Valves and Relief Valves. This term is now used in European Norms (EN) and ISO 4126 descriptions. Safety Valves are included as Safety Accessories in the PED (Article 1, paragraph 2.1.3) and are classified in risk category IV (the highest). As with ASME, the legislation texts are complex and possibly open to interpretation. In this book, we have distilled all parts direcdy related to Safety (Relief) Valves and tried to make them comprehensive and practically usable. 

The environmental impact of waste disposal and of chemical use in Europe has led to three legislative actions that, in today s global economy, greatly affect flame-retardant use and research. These actions go by the acronyms of RoHS (Reduction of Hazardous Substances), WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), and REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemical substances). These actions are discussed in detail in Chapter 22, but need to be mentioned here as they are clear examples of how changing regulations affect flame-retardant use, selection, and new fire-safety developments. The first one, RoHS, refers to how new items are manufactured, and specifically bans chemicals and elements of environmental and toxicological concern in Europe. One fall-out item of RoHS is the move from a lead-based solder on circuit... 

The easy removeability provision is also specified in the 1996 legislation and was an early requirement in several of the state NiCd battery recycling laws. These provisions were developed at the time when many NiCd battery power tools and appliances did not provide for easy removeability, mainly as a consumer safety measure. Since the early 1990s, however, battery operated tools, appliances and other devices have been designed so that in most cases the batteries are easily removable while still ensuring consumer safety. In fact, many manufacturers of battery powered tools today market replacement battery packs, which are interchangeable in a number of different tools. Only in certain systems such as computer memory backup and medical devices are the batteries permanently installed to avoid system failure. 

Given today s myriad laws, it is often overlooked that the industry is itself interested in safe and environmentally friendly plants. Only safe and environmentally friendly plants operate economically. Therefore, the chemical industry often employs safety measures that go beyond the requirements of legislation. Their aim is to depict the basic safety technology concept in such a detailed form that specialists without speciflc knowledge of the project can evaluate it [Troster 1985, Eichendorf 2001]. The safety concept of a chemical plant is determined, among others, by the following ... 

In formulating for today s products it is not enough to identify additives, or other raw materials, solely by their functionality. There is an increasing level of legislation focussed on safety, health and environmental issues. Some indication of the breadth of these issues is given in the following list -... 

One of the earliest recorded safety policies was that of the Babylonian ruler Hammurabi. Hammurabi formulated regulations and legislation for safety. The Code of Hammurabi was carved on a dolomite column consisting of 3600 lines of cuneiform that can still be seen today in Paris. The code covered the requirements for ships and shipping as well as construction. 

This book is intended to provide a better understanding of the principles involved in solvent selection and use. It strives to provide information that will help to identify the risks and benefits associated with specific solvents and classes of solvents. The book is intended to help the formulator select the ideal solvent, the safety coordinator to safeguard his or her coworkers, the legislator to impose appropriate and technically correct restrictions and the student to appreciate the amazing variety of properties, applications and risks associated with the more than one thousand solvents that are available today. 

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