Posted By stephen J Smith Hello everyone, I am in need of help. I have a chemical which has just been assigned as a cat 3 carcinogen. The substance, Methylene Chloride is used to weld polycarbonate. It is extracted to a high standard, the measured ppm at the work face is less than 2ppm - the old MEL was 100ppm. I have undertaken health surveillance - a pre and post shift sample being undertaken which shows very little exposure intake - in fact the local occ health don't think we need to do the tests. The chemical is locked in highly flammable cabinets, employees are trained in its use and spill eventualities. My question - is there anything else we should do or anything we need to do bearing in mind the cat 3 state?

Posted By Jonathan Breeze At the risk of sounding stupid by stating the obvious... You could always engage your techincal staff or suppliers in looking for non carcinogenic alternatives. If you're that worried, it would be better to eliminate it from the process or substitute a far less hazardous alternative, than maintain the status quo and risk cancer in the users. Kate is right in stating that Methylene Chloride has been classified a carcinogen for a while.