What are the health and safety regulations for cleaning and spray painting?
Occupational health and safety in surface cleaning, spray painting, spraying and thermal spraying is regulated by the new regulation of the Minister of Development and Technology. The new health and safety rules in this area have been in force since January 2024.
The Regulation of the Ministry of Economy, Labour and Social Policy, which entered into force on 10 January 2024 after a 3-month vacatio legis, replaced the Regulation of the Minister of Economy, Labour and Social Policy of January 2004. The aim of the new normative act – as its authors declare in the explanatory memorandum – is primarily to adapt the health and safety regulations in surface cleaning, spray painting and thermal spraying to the effects of technical progress that has taken place since the previous regulation was issued. Moreover, the explanatory memorandum reads that the regulation was issued in order to adapt the implementing provisions to the current legal status; The aim is to update the provisions, including references to current national and EU legislation.
The regulation sets out the requirements for occupational health and safety in the following areas:
- surface blasting with the use of devices with an open or closed abrasive circuit, which is in a stream of compressed air, water or a mixture of water and compressed air;
- spraying surfaces with liquid lacquer products using spraying devices or spraying surfaces with powder lacquer products using sputtering devices;
- thermal spraying of metal surfaces with the use of pistol arc, plasma, flame devices, including supersonic and detonation devices.
However, the provisions of the Regulation do not apply to: surface blasting with the use of rotor-type equipment; thermal spraying performed in closed chambers with reduced pressure or filled with inert gas and under water; painting in airtight chambers where the worker operating the machine is isolated from the harmful environment.
Compliance with the requirements set out in the new regulation is supposed to – according to its authors – to increase the level of security within the scope regulated by its provisions. The regulation focuses mainly on specifying the requirements allowing for better protection of the health and life of employees and reducing the potential number of accidents at work of people performing work in surface cleaning, spray painting, spraying and thermal spraying, which do not result from other regulations currently in force.
The Regulation also introduces references to separate current implementing acts applicable to the regulation in question, mentioning them only by title. On the other hand, the legal basis on which they were issued has been specified in detail. Such a construction of the reference to separate provisions will make it possible to avoid the need to update the provisions of the regulation in question, in the event of amendments to the provisions referred to, if these changes do not affect in any way the subjective and objective scope of this regulation.
Supported by Norway through Norway Grants 2014-2021, in the frame of the Programme “Social Dialogue – Decent Work”.
