Visionneuse

Date_TXT

Switzerland : Springer, 2020

Auteur

Michele Barone, Rachid Chaib

Sujet

Chemicals in the Food ; Industry Toxicological ;

Type de document

Livre

Description :

Chemicals are essential for the production of a large number of industrial goods. Many industrial sectors use chemicals (cleaning, degreasing, paints, inks, adhe- sives, foods, photocopiers, cleaning products, etc.). These substances gradually invade the environment and many aspects of our life. It is through these products that millions of people can produce and consume goods necessary for life. Unfortunately, raising concerns about their effects on health and the environment are emerged. Poorly used, without basic or special precautions, many of these chemicals can become dangerous and sometimes cause great accidents and serious diseases. More than 33 % of employees in the general industry, including food and beverage articles, are exposed to at least one chemical product during their work. Rejected into nature without precautions or treatments, chemicals pollute the environment and break the natural balance for the development of life on earth, in water and air.
Some of these substances can have significant adverse effects on the environ- ment and health, even at low doses. Other products also raise concerns because of their persistence in environments, difficulty of measuring them, and the lack of knowledge of their environmental and health impacts on a long-term scale. They can also be emitted as dust, gas, vapors, and their presence can then be unsuspected resulting in more serious injuries and/or material damages. It should also be noted that occupational cancers cause a mortality rate higher than that caused by occu- pational accidents: The multiplication of used chemicals and the complexity of industrial processes therefore really require increased vigilance regarding the car- cinogenic risk they induce. Food industries are not an exception. Cancer is now the leading cause of death in industrialized countries. Respiratory cancers are the most frequent occupational cancers: Cancers attributable to asbestos, benzene, ionising radiations, and wood dust alone account for nearly 90% of work-related cancers. However, these diseases often take several decades to develop after exposure; their link with work is therefore not always easy to establish. Employers and workers must be able to protect themselves from carcinogens. In this respect, chemicals play a central role in health and safety at work. Therefore, the consideration of health issues at work can be an opportunity to change the medium-term performance of all
areas of industries; on the other hand, failure to take these issues into account may penalize companies in future years.
Since 1930s, the global chemical production has increased by a factor of 400. Of the 100,000 chemical substances in the European Union, 30,000 are produced at more than one ton per year. However, less than 3000 products have been thor- oughly analyzed for their dangerousness when speaking of toxicity and ecotoxicity. One of the main reasons has been the entry of chemistry into food and beverage production activities.
With the increasing complexity of the industrial enterprise, the constant presence of chemicals, and the rapid evolution of little and medium companies into large enterprises, risk assessment becomes a critical and strategic response when speaking of health and safety. The same thing can be surely affirmed when speaking of industries producing or manipulating foods, beverages, and related intermediates, because chemicals can be: