SECTION II

EMPLOYERS' OBLIGATIONS

Specific protection and prevention measures
Article 6
1
The employer shall ensure that the risk from a hazardous chemical agent to the safety and health of workers at work is eliminated or reduced to a minimum.
2
In applying paragraph 1, substitution shall by preference be undertaken, whereby the employer shall avoid the use of a hazardous chemical agent by replacing it with a chemical agent or process which, under its condition of use, is not hazrdous or less hazardous to workers' safety and health, as the case may be.
Where the nature of the activity does not permit risk to be eliminated by substitution, having regard to the activity and risk assessment referred to in Article 4, the employer shall ensure that the risk is reduced to a minimum by application of protection and prevention measures, consistent with the assessment of the risk made pursuant to Article 4. These will include, in order of priority:
a
design of appropriate work processes and engineering controls and use of adequate equipment and materials, so as to avoid or minimise the release of hazardous chemical agents which may present a risk to workers' safety and health at the place of work;
b
application of collective protection measures at the source of the risk, such as adequate ventilation and appropriate organizational measures;
c
where exposure cannot be prevented by other means, application of individual protection measures including personal protective equipment.
Practical guidelines for protection and prevention measures to control risk shall be developed in accordance with Article 12(2).
3
The measures referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article shall be accompanied by health surveillance in accordance with Article 10 if it is appropriate to the nature of the risk.
4
Unless the employer clearly demonstrates by other means of evaluation that, in accordance with paragraph 2, adequate prevention and protection have been achieved, the employer shall carry out on a regular basis, and when any change occurs in the conditions which may affect workers' exposure to chemical agents, such measurements of chemical agents which may present a risk to worker's health at the workplace as are necessary, in particular in relation to the occupational exposure limit values.
5
The employer shall take into account the results of the procedures referred to in paragraph 4 of this Article in carrying out the obligations laid down in or resulting as a consequence of Article 4.
In any event, where an occupational exposure limit value effectively established on the territory of a Member State has been exceeded, the emloyer shall immediately take steps, taking into account the nature of that limit, to remedy the situation by carrying out preventive and protective measures.
6
On the basis of the overall assessment of and general principles for the prevention of risks in Articles 4 and 5, the employer shall take technical and/or organisational measures appropriate to the nature of the operation, including storage, handling and segregation of incompatible chemical agents, providing protection of workers against hazards arising from the physico-chemical properties of chemical agents. In particular he shall take measures, in order of priority, to:
a
prevent the presence at the workplace of hazardous concentrations of inflammable substances or hazardous quantities of chemically unstable substances or, where the nature of the work does not allow that,
b
avoid the presence of ignition sources which could give rise to fires and explosions, or adverse conditions which could cause chemically unstable substances or mixtures of substances to give rise to harmful physical effects, and
c
mitigate the detrimental effects to the health and safety of workers in the event of fire or explosion due to the ignition of inflammable substances, or harmful physcial effects arising from chemically unstable substances or mixtures of substances.
Work equipment and protective systems provided by the employer for the protection of workers shall comply with the relevant Community provisions on design, manufacture and supply with respect to health and safety. Technical and/or organisational measures taken by the employer shall take account of and be consistent with the equipment group categorisation in Annex I to Directive 94/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 March 1994 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States concerning equipment and protective systems intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres .
The employer shall take measures to provide sufficient control of plant, equipment and machinery or provision of explosion suppression equipment or explosion pressure relief arrangements.
OJ L 100, 19.4.1994, p. 1.