The new regulations on skin protection in occupational safety in Germany aim to protect employees' skin from harmful influences.
The skin is exposed to a variety of stresses at work, such as
- Wet work,
- Activities involving solvents or cooling lubricants,
- Use of highly abrasive or solvent-based skin cleansers,
- Frequent contact with sharp-edged parts or metal chips,
- frequent mechanical stress on the same areas of skin, e.g. due to repetitive handling, and
- Exposure to heat.
Many skin problems can be avoided if skin hazards are adequately considered in the risk assessment and suitable protective measures are defined, implemented and tested for their effectiveness.
It is the task of the supervisor, together with the company doctor and the occupational safety specialist, to carry out an assessment of the skin exposure occurring at the workplace. If hazards still exist at the workplace after substitution testing and the implementation of technical and organizational protective measures in accordance with the state of the art, suitable protective gloves must be selected and provided as a personal protective measure.
If protective gloves cannot or must not be worn, e.g. when working on rotating machine parts where there is a risk of entrapment, specific skin protection products can reduce the risk to the skin. However, the use of skin protection products is reserved for activities involving substances that are slightly harmful to the skin, such as water, detergents, water-mixed cooling lubricants and other solutions in application concentrations that do not require labeling.
The consistent application of protective measures in the workplace is mandatory for employees and also crucial for the prevention of skin diseases.
This CHECKLIST serves the employer to clarify and document the skin protection currently implemented in the company.
