General

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1. General

1.1. Role of the bodies and persons concerned with the prevention of

contamination of the working environment

1.1.1. The protection of workers’ health against the hazards due to the

contamination of air at the workplace and the prevention of contamination of the

working environment should be the concern of all those involved in the design,

organisation and performance of the work and all those concerned with the protection of

workers’ health.

1.2. Role of the competent authority

1.2.1. The competent authority, after consulting the employers’ and workers’

organisations concerned, should issue where necessary, and keep up to date, regulations

on the prevention of contamination which are adapted to the particular branches of

economic activity to which they apply.

1.2.2. The competent authority should have the expertise to supervise the

enforcement of current regulations and exposure limits, where they exist, and to supply

relevant information.

1.2.3. The regulations on the prevention of contamination should stipulate clearly

all those persons responsible for carrying them out.1

1.2.4. The competent authority should bear in mind, when establishing

regulations on the prevention of contamination of the working environment, the close

links between the protection of the neighbourhood environment and that of the working

environment.

1.2.5. The competent authority should determine the substances of which the

manufacture, supply or use at the workplace should be prohibited or made subject to

specific authorisation, which will require compliance with particular measures of

prevention or protection.

1.2.6. (1) Special attention should be paid by the competent authority to the

application of the regulations on the prevention of contamination of the working

environment and to the provision of the technical advice which is often necessary in

small and medium-sized undertakings.

1 In so complex a field, the development of which is relatively recent, the administrative structure of

a country may make it necessary to share out activities for the prevention of contamination; but it is of the

greatest importance to ensure a clear distribution of responsibilities, and to prevent their dispersion, by

assigning them to a single body which should maintain extensive relations with all the official services

concerned.