The role of BOHS

BOHS is in an excellent position to reach other Occupational Hygiene Associations and Societies throughout Europe and also to involve practicing hygienists and alert them to developments.  In addition, it is well placed to inform policy makers about existing, successful approaches to exposure control.  As such, it can play an important role in coordinating activity amongst the EU Occupational Hygiene community, assisting the development of implementation guidance and ensuring practising hygienists are fully informed and engaged, and able to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by the introduction of the REACH legislation, to help facilitate its implementation.

BOHS has already demonstrated its authority in this area through its collaboration with the Belgian Society for Occupational Hygiene in organising a workshop in December 2005 that brought together experts in the field of occupational hygiene and policy makers to discuss opportunties for effective REACH implementation and consequences of the introduction of REACH for occupational hygiene.

The workshop covered the essential elements: an overview of the proposed legislation; implementation guidance under development; how to prepare ESs; the assessment of exposure levels in these scenarios, and the use of exposure control measures to implement safe use.  The second focus of the workshop was on the competency needs for the occupational hygiene profession that the implementation of REACH will introduce.

A full report on this workshop can be downloaded here.  Its recommendations - addressed to BOHS and other national occupational hygiene societies - are summarised below:

  1. Work together to publicise the work of occupational hygienists;
  2. Supply expertise to inform and influence the guidance being written for REACH;
  3. Evaluate occupational hygiene training and competency requirements to ensure they take account of the skills needed for REACH;
  4. Look into the feasibility of setting up a series of REACH awareness training events for occupational hygienists and industry;
  5. Look into the feasibility of standardising REACH-relevant training and competencies for occupational hygienists across the EU.

One of the first outcomes from these conclusions was the setting up of our REACH Steering Group.  Two open technical seminars have been run, 'How to REACH 2007'  and 'REACH Beyond 2007' , with plans to continue to update and run it in other venues throughout the UK; a presentation on 'REACH and Occupational Hygiene' was given at the IOSH 07 Exhibition in Telford in March 2007.  A workshop entitled 'What does REACH really mean for Occupational Hygiene' was run at this year's Annual Conference in April 2007. 

A number of articles have been written by members of the Steering Group, which have been published in our Newsletter and other journals.