NIOSH releases skin-hazard profiles on nine chemicals

Washington – NIOSH has published nine new skin notation profiles to “alert workers and employers to the health risks of skin exposures to chemicals in the workplace.”

Each profile provides supplemental information to the skin notation – in particular, specific hazards to skin from a certain chemical – including a summary of the relevant data used to help determine these hazards.

The new profiles are:

• Arsenic and inorganic arsenic containing compounds
• Disulfoton
• Heptachlor
• 1-Bromopropane
• 2-Hydroxypropyl acrylate
• Dimethyl sulfate
• Tetraethyl lead
• Tetramethyl lead
• Trichloroethylene

In the foreword to each profile, NIOSH Director John Howard notes that it is intended to “inform the audience – mostly occupational health practitioners, researchers, policy- and decision-makers, employers, and workers in potentially hazardous workplaces – so that improved risk-management practices may be developed to better protect workers from the risks of skin contact with the chemicals of interest.”