Chemicals are hazardous to the health of workers. SICHEM helps, with simple means, to implement the duty of care to protect the health of workers using chemicals. The first step is to establish a list of the chemicals stored and used.
Those who use SICHEM gain an overview of the hazards of the chemicals they use, see regulatory obligations and can thus correctly derive the necessary protective measures for employees.
What are the objectives of SICHEM?
A company / organisation is legally obliged to take all measures to protect the health and life of their employees when using chemicals. The most important first step is to establish a list of chemicals stored and used. The second step is to establish a list of activities associated with those chemicals. By identifying relevant properties and the activities involving the chemicals, the company has all the information it needs to carry out risk assessments and take the necessary measures to protect the health of its employees.
What can SICHEM (Release 1) do?
With SICHEM one can do the following in relation to their chemical inventory:
- recognise the properties that are hazardous to health, based on the current classification and labelling,
- recognise the legal restrictions (e.g., mother and youth labour protection, SVHC status of substances),
- define storage locations and quantities, and derive the storage classes,
- define occupation and functions of employees,
- define workplaces (list of activities),
- define protective measures,
- define an organisational structure and designate SICHEM users in different roles (administrator, manager, warehouse manager, pure reader) for separate parts of the company/organisation,
- create lists of chemicals, employees or activities for centralised and shared use of information.
SICHEM is linked to the Swiss Chemicals Product Register (www.rpc.admin.ch). By importing data from the product register, organisation-specific lists of chemicals can be efficiently created. This means that information on these chemicals (e.g., classification) is synchronized with the register and special regulatory obligations can be displayed directly (e.g., maternity protection).
Who is SICHEM for?
SICHEM is intended for all companies or organisations that use or handle chemicals. It provides support for easy implementation of the duty of care when handling chemicals in the workplace.
