Healthy Workplaces Good Practice Awards highlight examples of managing dangerous substances in the workplace

The 2018-19 competition is a key part of EU-OSHA’s Healthy Workplaces Manage Dangerous Substances  campaign. Dr Christa Sedlatschek, EU-OSHA’s Executive Director, commented on the merit of the awards: ‘We are delighted to see so many strong and varied examples of good occupational safety and health practice in the context of managing dangerous substances. The winning examples are from enterprises and organisations of a wide variety of sizes and from various sectors, all with a common goal: to create a culture of prevention and protect workers from dangerous substances.’

Six organisations were awarded:

(*) the Czech pharmaceutical company VAKOS XT, a.s., which worked with the Ministry of the Interior to develop a programme of measures to protect public service personnel from exposure to illegal narcotics during police actions in illegal drug laboratories, etc.;

(*) Eiffage Infrastructures, a large French company in the road construction and maintenance sector that developed a new technique to completely eliminate the use of hazardous solvents in its analytical laboratories;

(*) the German Federal Association of Glazier Trades, which developed and facilitated the implementation of a safe and economical technique for the handling of asbestos-containing materials;

(*) Peluquería Elvira, a small hairdressing and beauty salon that eliminated hazardous substances and also transformed working conditions in other salons throughout Spain;

(*) Atlas Copco Industrial Technique AB, a manufacturing company from Sweden that fostered a culture of participation and collaboration and implemented collective measures to protect workers from potentially hazardous carbon nanotubes;

(*) a small farming business in the Netherlands, Mansholt BV, that, in collaboration with the national sectoral body for OSH, implemented a range of technical and organisational measures to protect workers from hazardous dust.

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