Did EPEAT consider criteria to specifically address worker health and safety?
EPEAT’s environmentally sensitive materials criteria addresses many of the toxic constituents that may pose a health risk to manufacturing workers, users, and recycling workers. Also the requirement that manufacturers have an Environmental Management System in place will tend to reduce worker exposures. A proposal was made to the Development Team (DT) that an optional criterion be added to the end-of-life handling criteria that would require that all recyclers, including downstream recyclers, comply with OHSAS 18000 – an international occupational health and safety management system specification. Though this would not eliminate export, it would be protective of workers in foreign countries. Concerns over the cost of certification, difficulty of verification, and as a result exclusion of smaller recyclers were raised. Finally, the proposal to include OHSAS certification in EPEAT was made during the very last phase of the decision-making process. The Development Team members (even those
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- Are their any organizations taking steps to safeguard workers health and safety?
- Did EPEAT consider criteria to specifically address worker health and safety?
