Heavily regulated, chemical substances can present an unreasonable risk of injury to worker health or the environment.
That’s why regulators often mandate operators and owners to develop workplace chemical protection programs (WCPPs). What are those?
In the following, we look to recent guidance to define what WCPPs are and how to keep yours compliant.
Different jurisdictions (e.g., national, state, regional, and local) have different regulatory regimes in place for the control of toxic substances. In the U.S., for instance, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) of 1976, subsequently amended in 2016, is legislation that provides the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with the authority to require reporting, record-keeping, and testing requirements, as well as restrictions relating to chemical substances and/or mixtures.
Section 6(b) of the TSCA gives the EPA the power to evaluate chemical substances to determine whether they present an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment.
In fact, the EPA recently released relevant guidance intended for employers whose facilities are involved in the manufacturing (including import), processing, distribution in commerce, use, or disposal of chemicals regulated under Section 6 of the Act. Those employers are subject to workplace chemical protection programs (WCPPs,) per agency rulemaking.
What are these programs? As their name suggests, WCPPs are occupational chemical protection programs designed to address unreasonable risk from chemical exposures in the workplace. To that end, these programs regroup all individuals in the workplace who have the potential for exposure to a chemical regulated under the TSCA.
How does such a program work? Well, if a TSCA regulation authorizes condition of use under a WCPP for a chemical substance, that regulation will also include specific requirements to ensure the safety of persons engaging directly or indirectly in those conditions of use. The types of requirements tend to include:
As mentioned, a WCPP, per TSCA section 6 rules, is a program that can be used to protect potentially exposed persons in the workplace from unreasonable risk due to exposure. Owners or operators not subject to the TSCA (i.e., those abroad) but who do use such substances can learn valuable lessons about mitigating risk to their workers, as well.
For starters, WCPP provisions may include a regulatory occupational exposure limit called an Existing Chemical Exposure Limit (ECEL). An ECEL, typically expressed as an 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA), is a maximum average airborne concentration of the chemical substance that a person can be exposed to in the workplace.
In the U.S., the EPA may also establish an EPA Short-Term Exposure Limit (EPA STEL) in a final risk management rule. The EPA STEL is typically expressed as a 15-minute TWA to protect potentially exposed persons from acute occupational inhalation risk.
Another WCPP-related regulation under TSCA section 6 is the requirement for owners or operators to develop and implement an Exposure Control Plan as part of their WCPP. What does this mean?
Well, the Exposure Control Plan documents the consideration and implementation of exposure controls in accordance with the hierarchy of controls to reduce exposure to our below EPA exposure limits.
In other words, the Exposure Control Plan involves consideration of each level of the hierarchy of controls as well as documentation of the rationale behind what exposure controls were available and considered, what exposure controls were or were not implemented, as well as an explanation of why other exposure controls were or were not implemented.
What’s more, that documented rationale must comply with the requirement that the most effective exposure controls were considered and exhausted in order to prevent an overreliance on PPE and provide assurance to potentially exposed persons of their health and safety.
We can, therefore, think of the Exposure Control Plan as a conduit for continuous improvement and accountability as well as a means of informing potentially exposed persons about how they are being protected.
Of course, there’s more to managing hazardous materials than developing a workplace chemical protection plan. For more comprehensive guidance, check out our Guide to Hazardous Materials Management.