Preventing Skin Disease Guidelines and Recommendations

Recommendations

Employers can take the following steps from the Hierarchy of Controls to protect workers:

• Elimination: Eliminating exposure to the compound or product that causes the skin condition is the most effective method of control.
• Substitution: If possible, employers should attempt to substitute the hazardous agent to a less hazardous compound.
• Engineering controls: If elimination or substitution is not possible, engineering controls can prevent hazardous agents from contacting workers' skin. Examples of engineering controls include local exhaust ventilation systems and isolation booths.
• Administrative controls: Employers should provide training programs that educate workers about hazards that they may be exposed to and ways to protect themselves.
• Personal protective equipment (PPE): When other control methods are unable to reduce the hazardous exposure to safe levels, employers must provide PPE. Gloves, safety glasses or goggles, shop coats or coveralls, and boots should be provided by employers and worn by workers involved in the following activities (not an exhaustive list):
  • Wet or dry cleaning of work tools, equipment and work areas
  • Disinfection of work tools, equipment, and work areas
  • Contact with solvents
  • Contact with monomers of epoxy resins and tacky surfaces or hardening agents (such as glue or epoxy resins)
  • Use of preparations containing soaps, detergents, and disinfectants

Occupational dermal risks can also be assessed using control banding. Control Banding is an approach in which a control measure (such as general ventilation) is applied to a range or "band" of chemical exposures (such as 1−10 mg/m³) that falls within a given hazard group.