The importance of research in occupational exposure with chemicals

Every year in many parts of world, the safety and health practitioners organize activities to celebrate the 28th of April as the “world day for safety and health at work”. The purpose of this appellation by international labor organization (ILO) is to highlight the magnitude of work-related injuries, diseases and fatalities and promote the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases globally. In 2014, the theme of this day is “safety and health in the use of chemicals at work”. According to world health organization (WHO) studies, globally, 4.9 million deaths (8.3% of total) and 86 million Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) (5.7% of total) were attributable to environmental exposure and management of selected chemicals in 2004. These figures include both occupational and non-occupational exposures, such as indoor smoke from solid fuel use, outdoor air pollution and second-hand smoke, with 2.0, 1.2 and 0.6 million deaths annually. According to these studies, the global burden of disease amounted to 1.7% globally (in DALYs), or 2.0% of all deaths. Unfortunately, the global burden of occupational diseases and accidents in most developing countries is estimated due to weak of recording and unavailable data. So the epidemiologic studies in this area can be helpful. The overall strategy to manage the chemicals at workplace can be simplified in anticipation, identification, measurement, assessment, control and evaluation of potential chemical hazards. On the other hand, the innovation and research regarding the development and use of chemicals is rapidly in increasing, but a few investigations are conducted about the safety and health aspects of these chemicals. One of the most important innovations in this area is nanotechnology. The physical, chemical and biological properties of nano-materials used and emitted in this situation can be completely vary and so, affect their behavior in air and biological tissues. The adverse health effects of these nanometer particulates are not well-known and new approaches to protections are necessary. As a proactive approach, the potential hazards of various chemical nano-materials should be assessed before using to production. For these reason, researches in to the various occupational and environmental safety and health aspects (HSE problems) of nanotechnology are conducting in many countries.