Chemical risk assessment and occupational hygiene preventive measures in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)Introduction |
Whilst there is an increasing recognition of the importance of the role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the development of the economy, their occupational safety and health conditions continue to give rise for concern. In most countries, occupational safety and health legislation does not extend inspection coverage to SMEs. Such enterprises which are often classified under the informal sector are characterized as unregulated and unprotected which excludes them from systems such as health care and training. The relatively small number of workers employed by an individual SME and their high turnover render any useful occupational safety and health follow-up work difficult. This results in adequate recognition, detection and control of occupational hazards, and makes the diagnosis and treatment of chronic occupational ailments formidable tasks.
As will be elaborated upon in the following chapters, SMEs employ a sizeable proportion of the world's workforce. Workers are exposed to both traditional and complex patterns of occupational hazards, including the exposure to a wide array of chemicals and their mixtures. An attempt was therefore made, within the ILO Action Programme on Safety in the Use of Chemicals at Work, to focus on a representative sample of SMEs in selected developing countries with particular attention to chemical safety. The study was carried out by national occupational safety and health specialists in each of Bangladesh, Lebanon, Mauritius, Pakistan and Syria. It was conducted along the same guidelines in order to facilitate comparison between different countries, according to the following outline:
Enumeration of the measures undertaken by the SME to control exposure of workers to the chemicals, including:
The purpose of the study was to identify the chemical safety problems encountered by representative SMEs with the view for prescribing control measures which would incorporate manageable, low-cost, locally adaptable methods. It is hoped that this study would contribute to the overall national level efforts of combatting chemical safety problems in the occupational safety and health under-privileged SEES.
The study contributes to the ILO efforts aimed at promoting SMEs, particularly the Resolution concerning the Promotion of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises which was adopted by the 1986 International Labour Conference (ILC). It also contributes to the more recent discussions on the promotion of self-employment which were held during the 1990 ILC. The topic of SME promotion has also been discussed at several recent regional conferences, most recently by the Eighth African Regional Conference (1994). At the same time this study contributes to a number of labour standards which make direct or indirect reference to issues of employment and the role of SMEs, namely:
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