Diisocyanates – when not handled properly – can cause health issues, such as skin or eye irritation and occupational asthma. For that reason, under the European Union regulation for Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) a specific Restriction was adopted that states that all workers working with diisocyanates (e.g. foam line operators, laboratory staff or demoulding operators) have to be trained on safe use of diisocyanates by 24 August 2023.
Together with ISOPA, The European Diisocyanate and Polyol Producers Association and a coalition of downstream user sector associations, training material was developed to match the requirements of the REACH Restriction in line with the practicalities of the different industries. A level 1 training was agreed with this coalition and EUROPUR and EURO-MOULDERS developed specific material for the flexible slabstock and moulded foam industries, respectively. We would like to thank the members that actively contributed to this effort in the provision of their own in-house material and feedback to drafts. All in all, this effort has resulted in high quality harmonised training material on which we can be proud as an industry.
In order to facilitate dissemination of this material, ISOPA, together with downstream users commissioned an online training platform, which is nearing completion. Trials within the EUROPUR working group resulted in a relatively positive outcome.
For now, the English version of the training platform (for flexible foam) is live. Platform will be available in all official languages of the EU with an objective to have all languages ready by the end of the year. EUROPUR already provided company-specific vouchers to interested members who wanted to try out the training platform in the English language.
We are still experiencing some ‘bugs’ on the platform and we are actively working to solve them. Members interested in following the training can send an email to Patrick de Kort (p.dekort@europur.org) to obtain specific instructions and a voucher to obtain access to basic functionalities of this system for free.
If you want to stay updated on mandatory training for users of diisocyanates, register here.
