A survey was conducted among small- and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises with fewer than 300 employees to investigate the state of chemical substance management and risk assessment for physical hazards of chemicals. More than 80% of workplaces planned to assign a chemical substance manager, even at workplaces that did not manufacture chemicals. Manufacturing facilities of chemicals had a higher percentage of compliance with the provisions of prevention of explosions and fires of the Ordinance on Industrial Safety and Health than facilities that did not manufacture chemicals. Manufacturing facilities of chemicals also had a higher percentage of regular implementation of risk assessments for physical hazards of chemicals than facilities that did not manufacture chemicals. In risk assessment for the physical hazards of chemicals, simple methods such as CREATE-SIMPLE were mainly used. The most common difficulty in implementing risk assessment was a lack of personnel with sufficient knowledge. In the steps for risk assessment of chemicals, the most common difficulty in implementing risk assessment of physical hazards of chemicals was that the risk reduction measures to be implemented could not be identified.
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