Your hands are getting red. Blisters are forming. They break open and it’s like a lunar landscape in miniature, with craters, crusts and scales.

Not a pretty sight, but for far too many workers it’s almost normal - just the result of another day pouring cement without proper PPE.

It’s estimated that there are between 200 and 400 cases of contact allergic dermatitis in the UK each year, caused by contact with cement. It’s a painful, disfiguring and sometimes disabling disease, but the HSE is fighting back with a proposed ban on the nasty compound that causes the trouble – chromium VI.

Two parts in a million
Though reducing the amount of chromium VI in cement would help to alleviate only one type of the disease, allergic contact dermatitis (it doesn’t help irritant contact dermatitis), the HSE wants to reduce the occurrence of chromium VI to no more than two parts per million by January 2005. Right now there’s an average of 10 parts per million in certain cements, and more in others.

The HSE wants to make manufacturers mix ferrous sulfate into the cement, which reduces the chromium content through a chemical reaction activated by water. Simple enough - but it’s essential to get the sell-by date right because ferrous sulfate doesn’t last forever. The ban will be implemented through an amendment to the COSHH and CHIP regulations 2002.

The consultative documents are available from www.hse.gov.uk/consult/condocs/cd195.htm.

Source

Construction Manager