The workplace can sometimes be an extremely harsh environment for workers skin to cope with, especially and not surprisingly for the skin on their hands. Dermatitis at work can be caused by any one of more of an almost endless list of irritant or allergenic substances found and used in the workplace. These can cause the skin to redden, dry out, flake, swell, crack or blister, processes exacerbated by repeated friction against the skin, a dry atmosphere or extremes of temperature. Susceptibility to industrial dermatitis is often also increased by pre-existing health conditions, including allergies, and whether or not the employee is under physical or mental stress, but the bottom line is that there is lot of dermatitis occurring in the workforce that shouldn’t be occurring.
An employer has a legal duty of care to their employees, to ensure are far as is reasonably practicable their health, safety and wellbeing and the raft of health and safety legislation brought into force over the last forty years has resulted in the establishment of a regulatory edifice which compels, instructs and monitors employers regarding that duty of care. When an easily avoidable skin condition such as dermatitis still represents a sizeable health problem in the workforce in 2012, the question is bound to be asked: ‘Why hasn’t current health and safety legislation addressed this problem?’
In fact various regulations such as the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health 2002 (COSHH) and the Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 exist primarily to compel employers to address the issues that can cause work related diseases such as dermatitis. COSSH for instance requires employers to train their employees about the nature of the substances they are coming into contact with in the course of their work and any risks associated with this exposure. They are then required to instruct their workforce in precautions to take; why the control measures are in place and how they work. Finally they must ensure that employers know how to use their personal protective equipment, such as gloves and also provide them with the results of any exposure monitoring that has been undertaken.
If employers are fully discharging their legal duty of care, their employees won’t be experiencing levels of skin contact with materials sufficient to cause dermatitis; they won’t be working with unprotected skin and they won’t be ignoring or missing the first tell-tale signs of dermatitis. In short, they won’t be getting sick.
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