Great cleaning and maintenance products rely on great chemical formulas to get the job done. Manufacturers make every effort to ensure that their products are safe for use through rigorous testing and by providing ‘easy-to-follow’ instructions and labelling. But how do manufacturers determine what is safe and what is not? How are levels of ‘hazard’ and ‘risk’ established?
When dealing with the safety characteristics of chemical ingredients, it is important to understand the precise meaning of the terminology used. For example, many people use the terms hazard and risk as if they were interchangeable, but in fact these words have very different meanings.
What's the difference between risk, hazard and exposure?
A chemical's hazard is its intrinsic ability to cause adverse effects. The risk is the likelihood that those effects will occur in the applications in which the chemical is used.
HAZARD The way in which an object or a situation may cause harm to health and/or the environment
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EXPOSURE The extent to which the likely recipient of the harm is exposed to, or can be influenced by, the hazard
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RISK The chance that the harm will actually occur
Crossing the road, for example, is a hazardous action, since it could end up in an accident. But no one suggests banning it. In this example, the guidelines and safety measures under which the action is performed reduce the risk to acceptable levels. The same principle can be applied to chemicals.
For a chemical, a risk assessment must take into account not only the intrinsic hazards of that chemical but also how those hazards can be mitigated by limiting exposure to acceptable levels. It is therefore essential to provide information on chemicals based on hazards and risk assessments, in order to provide customers and end-users with a proper understanding of the safety issues involved.
By doing so, the industry demonstrates its commitment to the responsible use of its products, both for human safety and for the environment.
Assessing and managing the risk of chemicals
To manage risk, manufacturers of products that use chemical ingredients take into account the conclusions of the risk assessments when developing their formulas. Based on these conclusions, they determine how risk can be reduced, and communicate to customers and end-users the relevant information on how to use the product safely and the appropriate risk-reduction measures to take.
This information is communicated through various channels, including the manufacturer’s website, customer-care line and the label or packaging of the product itself.