Лако-красочные материалы — производство

This section does not attempt to discuss the health and safety of engineering adhesives in full detail but merely gives an overview of some of the regulations and major precautions that may need to be considered when selecting adhesives for the bonding of engineering plastics or elastomers. The H&S issue is quite rightly increasingly becoming more prevalent in the workplace and this gives adhesive chemists ever greater challenges.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) website (www. hse. gov. uk) [2] gives very thorough notes and guidance on all aspects of health and safety in the workplace. The suppliers of all adhesives and chemicals in the EC (and indeed in most countries) are required to provide an Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for each product they sell.

The MSDS (Section 15) will also include risk phrases (R) and Safty phrases (S) and many of these will also be included on the product packaging.

Examples of ‘Risk phrases’ in use prior to April 2009:

• R20 Harmful by inhalation,

• R21 Harmful in contact with skin.

Examples of ‘Safety phrases’ in use prior to April 2009:

• S16 Keep away from sources of ignition,

• S36 Wear suitable protective clothing.

However, in April 2009, the MSDS sheets were no longer covered by the Hazard Information and Packaging for Supply (CHIP) Regulations and transferred to the European Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and

of Chemicals (REACH) Regulation. Under the REACH Directive, new harmonised warning and precautionary statements for labels are replacing the existing risk and safety phrases:

Examples of new Hazard Statements for labels:

• H240 — Heating may cause an explosion,

• H320 — Causes eye irritation, and

• H401 — Toxic to aquatic life.

Examples of new Precautionary Statements for labels:

• P102 — Keep out of reach of children,

• P271 — Use only outdoors or in well-ventilated area, and

• P410 — Protect from sunlight.

Examples of some of the original symbols (pre-April 2009) are given in Table 7.1.

The European Union (EU) have tried to establish a standard hazard classification for all dangerous chemicals and these are listed in an Annex to the EU Directive. This annex is kept up to date via an Amendment to Technical Progress (ATP), which reviews the classification of all substances.

These changes in regulations sometimes mean that an adhesive purchased in 2002 and then again in 2009 may have changed its warning label from, say, ‘Irritant’ to ‘Harmful’. This will be because (in the light of new test data) one of the ingredients of that adhesive will have been reclassified even although the adhesive formulation itself and the concentration of that chemical has not changed. For example, the 25th ATP changed cyanoacrylate monomer to an ‘Irritant’ classification resulting in St Andrew’s cross and new labelling for all cyanoacrylates. By 2015, international Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) symbols will replace the European symbols (Table 7.2) and so the cyanoacrylate label will be changed again to comply with the regulations utilising the GHS labelling system.

Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) is the law that requires employers to control substances hazardous to health. Where adhesives are used in the workplace a COSHH assessment could include, for example:

• Provision of training for employees,

• Ensuring adequate ventilation,

• The provision of adhesive dispensers to minimise risk of spillage/over — application,

• Providing appropriate protective gloves, UV glasses, etc., depending on the application.

Every industrial application will be different and the HSE website gives some very useful guidelines and worked examples of COSHH assessments.