Safe Use of Chemicals and Risk Prevention in the Finnish Chemical Industry’s Work Places

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to examine how HSE (health, safety and environment) managers and the workers’ OSH representatives view the following topics: (1) safe use of chemicals, (2) prevention prioritizations and measures of management, (3) collective climates of OSH in systems thinking and (4) discourses on legislation about chemical safety. It was hoped to clarify their potential effects by evaluating organizational relationships and technical measures of OSH. Forty-nine HSE managers and 105 workers’ OSH representatives responded to an online survey questionnaire. In the regression analysis of HSE managers and workers’ OSH representatives, both the prevention prioritizations and the measures of management displayed a highly significant (p < 0.001) effect on safe use of chemicals. With respect to safe use of chemicals, the following factors were found: Factor 1—Training, Factor 2—OSH Policies and Factor 3—Work processes. With respect to prevention prioritizations, the following factors were found: Factor 1—Technology, Factor 2—Assessments and documents and Factor 3—Control. For measures of management, the factors were: Factor 1—Leadership, Factor 2—Assessments and Factor 3—Utilization of measures. Qualitative results in the discourses detected an improvement with respect to compliance with OSH legal demands, need of information and cooperation between different governmental inspectorates.