Update of protection regulations against the risk of inhalation of respirable dust

The Ministry for the Ecological Transition has published this summer a new order by which the particularities of the mining sector are unified in a single text with respect to the protection of workers against the risk of dust inhalation, suppressing or repealing the legal provisions and/or Complementary Technical Instructions (ITC) that until now converged in the sector.

The new Order TED/723/2021, of July 1, approves the Complementary Technical Instruction 02.0.02 on the protection of workers against the risk of inhalation of dust and respirable crystalline silica of the General Regulation of Basic Mining Safety Standards.

This is a very interesting regulatory change to the General Regulation of Basic Mining Safety Standards (RGNBSM) given that some of its provisions date back to 1985 and logically long before the reference regulations on safety and health at work in our country such as Law 31/1995 on Risk Prevention Labor.

Another relevant legislative reason for the modification of the RGNBSM has been the application of Directive (EU) 2017/2398, which incorporated as a carcinogenic agent work that involves exposure to respirable crystalline silica dust generated in a work process and the obligation to incorporate the content of said Directive into Royal Decree 665/1997 of May 12, on the protection of workers. against the risks related to exposure to carcinogens during work.

At Fraternidad-Muprespa we work to disseminate a culture of prevention with the aim of reducing the accident rate of our mutualists and for this reason we encourage you to discover our web portal dedicated to the prevention of occupational risks and the development of a culture of health Previene where you can find interesting informative material with entertaining and specialized content.