Workers producing rubber goods are not being provided the minimum legally-required protection from cancer risks, a survey by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has found. Almost all the firms visited in the small study had ‘significant deficiencies’ in their engineering controls and their risk assessments under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) regulations, the survey found, were ‘not suitable and sufficient’. Dermal exposures at rubber compounding ‘are not adequately controlled’, the report added. The survey discovered six of 75 rubber fume exposures measured were in excess of the Workplace Exposure Limit (WEL). The HSE survey report concluded “although exposures are typically below the WEL, exposures are not being controlled as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP), as is the requirement for carcinogens under the COSHH regulations. Almost all sites visited had significant deficiencies related to the engineering controls used to control rubber fume exposures.” The report adds to earlier concerns about poor control of occupational cancer risks in the chemical sector.

A small survey of exposure to rubber process dust, rubber fume and N-nitrosamines, RR819, HSE, July 2010. Risks 468.