This report looks into current issues concerning occupational health and safety, especially with regard to the glass and ­ceramics sector. Statistics on workplace accidents and occupational diseases are discussed.

The context and consequences of the new general particulate exposure limits, as decided by the Committee on Hazardous Substances (AGS) in February 2014, are dealt with in detail. That instrument reduced the occupational exposure limit for the alveolar dust fraction from 3 to 1.25 mg/m³.

Also discussed are current regulatory developments with special attention to their impacts on the ceramic industry in general and on the brick and tile industry in particular. The newly amended occupational preventive medicine regulation ArbMedVV was one of the event‘s special-focus topics.

Dr. Karlheinz Guldner, Präventionsfeld Glas und Keramik der VBG