Chemical pollutants in closed environments of transportation and storage of non-dangerous goods – Insufficient legislation, low awareness, and poor practice in Hungary

ABSTRACT

Several chemical pollutants can accumulate within the closed environments of transportation and storage. Pollutants are mainly residues of pesticides, volatile organic compounds and components of diesel exhaust. The study objectives were to (i) review the regulations relevant to occupational chemical exposures in closed environments of inland transportation and storage; and (ii) explore the practice of preventing these exposures. A systematic search and content analysis of international and Hungarian nation legal documents were carried out. In addition, semi-structured interviews with occupational health and safety (OHS) professionals and warehouse managers were conducted. Analysis of legal documents highlighted the lack of explicit regulations on the investigated problem. The 21 interviews revealed that the participants had limited knowledge about the pollutants; they deemed chemical exposure rare and related health effects negligible. The revealed limitations indicate that this field should be more specifically regulated and OHS professionals should be better informed about these workplace hazards.

KEYWORDS:

• Occupational chemical exposure
• pesticide residues
• closed environments of transportation and storage

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to the interviewees who shared their knowledge and experiences with us. We are grateful for the help of the Association of Hungarian Logistic Service Centres that provided contact details to the logistics companies in Hungary.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the FOP-3.6.1-16-2016-00022 “Debrecen Venture Catapult Program” project financed by the University of Debrecen. The grant supports PhD students and young researchers and has no influence on the research topics. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.