Various hazardous chemical substances are used daily as part of manufacturing and
processing. Exposure to these hazardous chemical substances (HCSs) can cause
adverse health effects in the exposed workers. Occupational exposure limits (OELs)
are used to control exposure to these HCSs and thereby protect workers from the
adverse effects that exposure may induce.
The aim of this study was to compare South African list of OELs as contained in the
Hazardous Chemical Substance Regulations (HCSR) to several developed and
developing countries based on two aspects: (1) the number of substances that are
selected and regulated by the lists of each country (2) and the overall level of the
OELs set by the different countries and jurisdictions. Due to the nature and the large
amount of data the study is divided into two parts. The first part is a comparison of
South African OELs with nine developed countries and jurisdictions along with the
Mine Health and Safety Act Regulation 22.9 (MHSR) of South Africa. The second
comparison was conducted between South African and the four developing BRICS
countries. BRICS is an acronym for: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa,
all are leading developing countries. Substance selection and coverage was
compared by analysing the number of overlapping and uniquely regulated OELs that
existed between countries. The over-all level of OELs was determined and
quantified by using the statistical method, the geometric means of ratios. These
ratios were compared in order to establish how the levels of OELs of the South
African HCSR compare with the level of the various other countries.
Results indicated that there are large and unsystematic differences between the
selection of HCSs that are regulated by different countries and jurisdictions.
Individual coverage and selection of HCSs between the various developing and
developed countries and jurisdictions in the study was inconsistent and dissimilar. A
high number of HCSs are regulated by only one of the various countries included in
this study. Among the developed countries 20.8% of substances are uniquely
regulated, whereas 46% of HCSs are regulated by only one of the various
developing countries. According to the geometric means of ratios Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is the only jurisdiction in a developed
country that has a higher overall level of OELs when compared to South Africa as for
the rest of the developed countries they all yielded a lower overall level of OELs.
American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygiene (ACGIH) had the lowest
overall level of OELs.
When compared with the BRICS countries South Africa had a higher overall level of
OELs. The average overall level of OELs differs substantially between the BRICS
countries; Russia having the lowest, and Brazil having the highest overall limit when
compared relative to South African HCSR. Strong similarities were found between
South African HCSR and MHSR indicating national similarity. The South African
OELs for HCSs have an overall higher level than the majority of developed and
developing countries. Various factors may be responsible for these differences
among countries and jurisdictions. These factors include, variations in scientific
reasoning, the risk acceptance of the negative impact that various HCSs might
induce and the time lags that countries have between updates. Further differences
may be explained by the difference in consideration of socio-economical and
practical feasibility of an OEL and the predominant industries in a country. / Thesis (MSc (Occupational Hygiene))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nwu/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/8640 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Viljoen, Liandi |
| Publisher | North-West University |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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