Malaysia drafts guidelines on monitoring of airborne chemicals

The draft of “Guidelines on Monitoring of Airborne Chemical Hazardous to Health, 202X” were released in Malaysia on March 15, 2021. The draft guidelines provide methods for monitoring and analyzing airborne chemicals hazardous to health (CHTH) in workplaces to meet the requirements for monitoring exposure of workers prescribed in regulation 26 of the “Occupational Safety and Health (Use and Standard of Exposure of Chemicals Hazardous to Health) Regulations 2000.”

The draft guidelines consist of seven chapters: Introduction, Air Monitoring Procedure, Sampling Technique, Monitoring Strategy, Sample Management, Sampling Results Management & Interpretation, and Report Writing.

The key point of the draft guideline

Under the “Occupational Safety and Health (Use and Standard of Exposure of Chemicals Hazardous to Health) Regulations 2000,” employers must conduct exposure monitoring in cases an assessment of risk to health indicates the following.

1. 1. Exposure monitoring is requisite to ensure that exposure of workers does not exceed Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL) or the lowest practicable level.
   2. Exposure monitoring is requisite to ensure maintenance of adequate control measures for the exposure of workers to CHTH.

The exposure monitoring shall be conducted by hygiene technicians* unless the area falls within the confined space area as prescribed in the “Industry Code of Practice for Safe Working in Confined Space 2010.”
(*A worker or any other person appointed by the employer and registered with the Director General to conduct chemicals exposure monitoring or inspection and test on engineering control equipment installed in the workplace.)

The analysis of samples shall be conducted by laboratories accredited by the Department of Standards Malaysia through its laboratory accreditation system, SAAM (Skim Akreditasi Makmal Malaysia), or any recognized equivalent international organization.

The definition of CHTH given in the “Occupational Safety and Health (Use and Standard of Exposure of Chemicals Hazardous to Health) Regulations 2000” is as follows.

1. 1. Those listed in Schedule I or II of the “Occupational Safety and Health (Use and Standard of Exposure of Chemicals Hazardous to Health) Regulations 2000”
   2. Those classified in any hazard class specified under Health Hazards in First Schedule of the “Occupational Safety and Health (Classification, Labelling and Safety Data Sheet of Hazardous Chemicals) Regulations 2013”
   3. Pesticides as defined under the “Pesticides Act 1974”
   4. Those listed in the First Schedule of the “Environmental Quality (Scheduled Waste) Regulations 2005”