Solicitud directa (CEACR) - Adopción: 2006, Publicación: 96ª reunión CIT (2007)

Convenio sobre los productos químicos, 1990 (núm. 170) - México (Ratificación : 1992)

1. The Committee notes the information contained in the Government’s reports and the attached legislation. Given the particular importance in the present context of access to information concerning chemicals, and ongoing international efforts to develop publicly available sources of information concerning chemicals on the Internet, the Committee would like to draw the Government’s attention to the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (see http://www.unece.org/trans/danger/publi/ghs/ghs_welcome_e.htm) in the context of the application of Article 7, the International Chemical Safety Cards (see http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/safework/cis/products/icsc/index.htm), in the context of the application of Article 8. Based on an examination of the report and the attached legislation, the Committee would like to raise the following questions.

2. The Government is requested to provide further information on the application of relevant legislation in practice in the application of the following provisions of the Convention:

–           Article 4. Formulation, implementation and periodical review of a national policy on safety in the use of chemicals at work. The Government is also requested to submit a copy of the relevant national policy; and

–           Article 5. Prohibitions or restrictions concerning the use of chemicals and the criteria used for such determinations under this Article.

3. The Government is also requested to submit further information and clarification on the effect given, or envisaged to be given, to the following provisions of the Convention:

–           Article 2. Definitions of terms including definitions of the terms “use of chemicals at work”, “branches of economic activity”, “article” and “workers’ representative”;

–           Article 6, paragraph 1. Classification systems and whether any international standards such as the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals have been taken into account for the classification of chemicals;

–           Article 6, paragraph 2. Hazardous proprieties of mixtures of two or more chemicals and measures taken to ensure that hazardous proprieties of mixtures composed of two or more chemicals are determined by assessments based on the intrinsic hazards of their component chemicals;

–           Article 6, paragraph 4. Progressive extension of existing classification systems and their application;

–           Article 8. Chemical safety data sheets and in this context, whether use has been made of the International Chemical Safety Cards (paragraph 1); measures taken to ensure that the chemical or common name used to identify a chemical on a chemical safety data sheet is the same as that used on the label (paragraph 3);

–           Article 9. Responsibilities of suppliers;

–           Article 10. Employers’ obligations to ensure that all chemicals at the workplace are labelled or marked independently of their degree of hazard and that chemical safety data sheets have been provided (paragraph 1); that information is obtained concerning non-labelled or marked chemicals (paragraph 2); and that only properly labelled and marked chemicals are used (paragraph 3);

–           Article 11. Transfer of chemicals and the requirement that containers are marked when chemicals are transferred;

–           Article 18. Rights of workers and their representatives and workers’ right to removal (paragraph 1), protection of workers from undue consequences in cases of removal (paragraph 2);

–           Article 18, paragraph 4. Conditions for non-disclosure of information to workers and their representatives; and

–           Article 19. Responsibility of exporting States.

4. Part V of the report form. Practical application of the Convention. The Committee also requests the Government to continue to provide information on the manner in which the Convention is applied in practice and to provide information such as extracts from inspection reports and statistics on numbers of workers covered by the measures giving effect to the Convention, disaggregated by gender, if possible.