Beijing Printing Industry Occupational Health Management Standard to Enter Trial Implementation on August 1

The website of the Beijing Municipal Administration of Work Safety issued the "Occupational Health Management Code for Printing Industry Workplaces in Beijing (Trial)" (the "Code") on June 18, and the Code took effect on a trial basis on August 1. The Code sets out the basic requirements, control measures and management measures for occupational health management in printing enterprises, and applies to occupational health management in printing enterprises in Beijing engaged in book, newspaper and periodical printing, book-block printing, and packaging and decoration printing.

The Code puts forward the basic requirements for health management in printing enterprises. In terms of production processes, printing enterprises should give priority to technologies and processes with low occupational hazards and actively use non-toxic or low-toxicity raw (materials, replacing toxic substances with non-toxic ones and highly toxic substances with low-toxicity ones. In terms of production equipment, printing enterprises should give priority to highly automated, low-noise production equipment and strengthen enclosure to reduce occupational hazards. In terms of production layout, printing enterprises should lay out their operations rationally in line with the process flow, separating hazardous operations from non-hazardous ones, isolating high-toxicity work areas from other work areas, and separating work areas from living areas. In terms of the working environment, printing enterprises should, according to their production processes and the characteristics of the occupational hazards, install ventilation, detoxification and dust-removal facilities for occupational hazard protection, so that the concentration and intensity of occupational hazard factors in the workplace meet the requirements of the "Occupational Exposure Limits for Hazardous Agents in the Workplace".

The Code contains a number of provisions protecting the rights and interests of printing employees. When concluding labour contracts with workers, printing enterprises shall truthfully inform them of the occupational hazards that may arise in the course of work and their consequences, the occupational hazard protection measures and the benefits involved, and shall state these in the labour contract. Printing enterprises shall provide workers with pre-job occupational health training and regular in-service occupational health training, and shall keep records on file for inspection. Printing enterprises shall carry out pre-job, in-service and pre-departure occupational health examinations for workers engaged in operations involving exposure to occupational hazards, and shall establish occupational health surveillance records.

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn), original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-362305.html