Control banding is a qualitative or semi-quantitative risk assessment and management approach to promoting occupational health and safety. It is intended to minimize worker exposures to hazardous chemicals and other risk factors in the workplace and to help small businesses by providing an easy-to-understand, practical approach to controlling hazardous exposures at work.
The principle of control banding was first applied to dangerous chemicals, chemical mixtures, and fumes. The control banding process emphasizes the controls needed to prevent hazardous substances from causing harm to people at work. The greater the potential for harm, the greater the degree of control needed to manage the situation and make the risk “acceptable.”[1]
Control banding is particularly useful in circumstances where there are not established occupational or environmental exposure limits for a chemical. There are 219 million chemicals with a Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) Registry Number,[2] and less than 500 are regulated by the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).[3] Employers have a responsibility to protect their workers from harm regardless of whether a substance-specific standard exists, and control banding serves as a proactive approach to fulfilling this duty.
A single control technology or strategy is matched with a single band, or range of exposures (e.g. 1-10 milligrams per cubic meter) for a particular class of chemicals (e.g. skin irritants, reproductive hazards).
- ^ "NIOSH Control Banding". United States National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Retrieved 2007-10-15.
- ^ "CAS Registry". CAS. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
- ^ "Preventing occupational illnesses through safer chemical management". United States Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Retrieved 2024-03-11.