A Guide Transitioning to Safer and Environmentally-Friendly Chemicals

There are a lot of things that you need to do to make your workplace eco-friendlier. We have talked in the past about the benefits of using solar panels and other forms of renewable energy.

However, there are also a lot of other steps that companies need to take to be better stewards of the environment. One of the most important changes you may need to make is switching the chemicals that you use. Some chemicals are a lot better for the planet. They also tend to be safer for your workers as well.

Guidelines on Switching to Chemicals that are Safer for the Environment and Your Workplace

We previously talked about the dangers of certain cleaning chemicals to the environment. Of course, other chemicals can harm the planet as well.

Chemicals are essential ingredients in day-to-day living. In many ways, people are exposed to chemicals and pollutants through the machines they use within and outside the office. Most of the things that make up everyday corporate conditions are powered by hazardous chemicals that harm the environment and people that are exposed to them.

In the past, it was difficult to know exactly what types of chemicals might be bad for the environment, because there wasn’t enough transparency among scientists. Two-thirds of scientists advising the EU about dangerous chemicals had links to industries that produced them.

The modern workforce has awakened to the dangers of toxic chemicals. While these harmful substances are still in use, the knowledge of the risks is known. There are also plans to reduce and eliminate the risks to both your workers and the eco-system. This is why your business needs to transition to chemical safety if you want to be eco-friendlier.

Impact of Chemicals in the Workplace

As an employer or employee, you should be familiar with the different chemicals in your workplace. Know how you’re exposed to these chemicals and how to avoid them. Exposures could be through air, skin, eye contact, and ingestion.

Being exposed to any workplace chemicals poses health concerns, and the consequences can be severe. The effects include cancer, organ damage, weak immune systems, asthma, allergies, and complications in reproductive systems. Belluck & Fox has secured $1 billion+ for mesothelioma victims due to the criticality of chemical use to Americans.

Why Businesses Must Transition to Using Safer Chemicals

If you’re a business owner, you should handle chemical substances properly while working on projects or making new installations. When you or any of your workers inhale harmful chemical substances, the hazard is inexplicable, and your company may be sued for negligence.

The chemicals will also be harmful to the planet if they are released. They may seep into the water supply, kill plants or harm animals that may ingest them. The devastation to the environment can be massive.

Therefore, transitioning to safer chemicals helps you avoid lawsuits as it prevents your workers from suffering major health complications and harming the environment.

Also, safer chemicals enable you to create a safe environment for the production and distribution of your products. It reduces contribution to pre-existing hazards caused by toxic items in the workplace, such as asbestos, whose fibers cause mesothelioma.

How Your Business Can Transition to Using Safer Chemicals

In America, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has created steps through which your business can transition to adopting safer chemicals for its operations. These chemicals won’t just be safer for your workers. They should also protect the environment as well. The summary of these steps are:

1. Create a Team to Develop a Plan

At the first stage, your organization should have a team of workers who have worked on various materials before. Leveraging the experience of these workers allows your company to establish goals and modify organizational missions for chemical safety in the workplace.

2. What are the Chemicals You’re Using?

As a business owner, you should evaluate the chemicals you use in the development of your products. It would also help if you identified the nature, performance, and implications of these chemicals.

3. Find Alternatives

While examining the dangerous chemicals in your line of work, you should find industry-specific alternatives as substitutes. This process may include contacting government agencies, professional outfits, professional associations, and even suppliers for suggestions about green alternatives.

4. Assess Alternatives

When you collate these alternatives, carefully evaluate the dangers using them would cause. Examine the hazards on workers and consumers as well as their sustainability. You should also assess their operation and cost in your workplace.

5. Choose a Safe Alternative

If, for example, you want to substitute asbestos for cotton fiber, icynene foam, or cellulose, it’s important to choose the one that’s best connected with your company goals. You should implement this alternative and make good decisions to develop and handle the processes involved.

6. Test the Alternative

After choosing the best alternative, test it to know the scale of its efficiency and effectiveness. This will help you identify new risks and decide if it’s the best alternative. If you need to repeat previous processes, do so too. Testing the alternative will help you confirm if it’s best for your employees’ working conditions and also ascertain if it’s a product customers would use safely.

7. Implementation

This process involves carrying out the alternative to your company’s best practices. After completing all the steps mentioned above, what’s left is to conduct relevant training for your employees before starting work on the new alternative for safe chemical practices and use.

Steps in Applying Safer Chemicals

When your organization transitions to using safer chemicals, you also need to keep everyone safe through some steps. These are:

1. Know the Toxic Components of the Alternative

Toxic properties are always in the products you use in the workplace. Identifying them through the safety data sheet (SDS) will help you handle highly flammable substances (for instance) properly.

2. Enable a Safe Working Environment

As the employer, you need to assess the risks of the work environment you provide for your workers. You can avoid highly flammable liquid if you work with methylated spirits, for example, by ensuring that the surface with direct contact with fire or extreme sunlight is rid of the solvent. You can also ensure maximal ventilation into the workspace. Avoid eye and skin contact with hazardous substances and ensure that containers are closed when not in use.

3. Adopt the use of Personal Protective Equipment

To limit workplace injury, using worker PPE correctly will protect your workers. You can check the SDS of any material used to know the recommended protective gear. You can also ensure that you clean and maintain your gear to avoid early wear on them.

Benefits of Safer Chemicals

There are a series of benefits adopting safer chemicals and practices in the workplace will afford you. Some of them are:

1. Safer Operations

When you transition, your workers will work without extreme casualty, and your customers will enjoy the products you provide. Since all the toxic parts of the material are eliminated, safety will be guaranteed without stress.

2. Enhance Credibility

With more innovative organizations about the public’s health, workers can be reassured of their health. And if workers can trust the company with their health, no doubt consumers can do likewise. Every sustainable effort improves the credibility of your company.

3. Cost Savings and Efficiency

Adopting chemical safety reduces corporate expenses and future risks, saving money on liability and workplace accidents. It also improves the performance of your workers and can lead to maximum productivity.

4. Innovation

Although there are competing industries, adopting safe chemical practices will lead to innovation in making the world safer. This will help organizations offering actual value stay competitive.

Other benefits are corporate stewardship, a safer workplace, and a global COP26 compliance effort against global warming and climate change.

Protecting the Environment and Workplace will Be Safer with The Right Chemicals

As chemicals are becoming harmful in the modern world, adopting safe practices will make the workplace safer and protect the environment. This will also help employers make changes where possible and protect them while they work. Safe chemicals also keep your business out of legal actions while solidifying your contributions towards a sustainable world.