THE RISK FACTOR CONCEPT OF TRGS440 - SUGG ESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT ANDFURTHER DEVELOPMENT

The risk factor concept specified in TRGS 440 is an aid to employers, safety engineers, institutions and anyone without chemical and toxicol ogical know-how, helping them to compare the risks related to differen t chemical substances and products and thus to fulfil their statutory duty from the German ordinance on hazardous substances to substitute h azardous chemicals by less dangerous ones. It was however impossible t o design the concept in a way that it applies to any of the uncountabl e possible product combinations and the risks related to them; consequ ently, results are not always satisfactory. Reasons for that are given in the paper and suggestions for concept amendments are made with a v iew to avoid erroneous results in the future. These suggestions will b e considered for the coming revision of TRGS 440.