The Column Model – Chronic Health Hazards (Part 3)

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Anyone who has followed my blog posts over the last few weeks has certainly noticed that the topic of substitution testing is in focus. In particular, I have already discussed the column model of TRGS 600 [1] in general and column 2a (Acute health hazards). So the topic of today’s blog post is obvious: Column 2b of the column model, Chronic health hazards.

Chronic health hazards (2b)

The characterisation of chronic hazardous substances consists in the fact that damage only occurs with repeated exposure. This is also the distinction from acute health hazards (column 2a), where even a single exposure causes damage, for example skin burns. Chronic hazards include CMR substances. This means that they have carcinogenic (C), germ cell mutagenic (M) or reprotoxic (R) effects on humans. Whether a substance poses a chronic health hazard can usually be easily recognised from the H statements. In the following, I would like to list some relevant properties and their classification in the column model. You can find the list of all points in the TRGS 600.

Very high and high hazard

Probably the best known example of substances with a very high hazard are carcinogenic substances. Affected are the hazard categories 1A and 1B with the H statements 350 and 350i (May cause cancer and May cause cancer by inhalation, respectively). Also germ cell mutagenic substances of categories 1A and 1B (H340: May cause genetic defects) are classified in a very high hazard. In addition to hazardous substances, however, there may also be processes and activities that cause a very high chronic health hazard. These are listed in TRGS 906 [2], for example, activities that produce hardwood dusts are affected.

manage-hazarous-substances.

The classification as “High” is only based on certain H statements. For example, carcinogenic or germ cell mutagenic substances of category 2 (H351, H341) or substances toxic to reproduction of categories 1A and 1B (H360, H360F, H360D, H360FD, H360Fd, H360Df) are affected. You can read exactly what the letters in the H statements mean in this blog post (currently only available in German). Another hazard category also comes into play here: specific target organ toxicity with repeated exposure, category 1 (H372).

Medium and low hazard

Reproductive toxicants, category 2 (H361, H361f, H361d, H361fd) are classified as a medium hazard. Also found here is specific target organ toxicity with repeated exposure, category 2 (H373) and substances that can harm infants via breast milk with H statement 362.
The most difficult substances to classify are those with a low chronic health hazard. Here, TRGS 600 only states that “substances that are otherwise chronically harmful ” are concerned. This cannot simply be read off from an H statement.

Negligible hazard

The classification as negligible is the same as for the acute health hazard. Harmless substances are classified here, for example water or sugar.

Conclusion

As with the classification in acute health hazards, the classification in chronic health hazards is mainly based on the H statements of the substance. So if you have the safety data sheet at hand, you can quickly classify how high a hazard your mixture presents. In any case, you should first carry out a plausibility check of the safety data sheet. If the classification of the product is not correct, you may draw the wrong conclusions during the substitution check. Our tool SDBcheck® (currently only available in German) can help you with this. You can upload your supplier SDS and check whether the classification and labelling are plausible. This gives you a good start and a good basis for comparing hazardous substances.

 

[1]        Technical rules for hazardous substances (Technische Regeln für Gefahrstoffe), TRGS 600, version 29.10.2020, BAuA website

[2]        Technical rules for hazardous substances (Technische Regeln für Gefahrstoffe), TRGS 906 (German version), last modified 03/2007, BAuA website

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