34. The duties in Switzerland

Section 31 names the reasons why this analysis cites predominantly German rules. For companies in Switzerland, this names the reference and not the applicable body of rules. Switzerland is not a member of the European Union, Directive 2004/37/EC and the German Hazardous Substances Ordinance do not apply there, and there is no body of rules which names the case treated here as the German TRGS 561 does under 5.9.3. The duties follow from the Federal Act on Accident Insurance and the Ordinance on the Prevention of Accidents and Occupational Diseases; they are framed without naming a specific substance. [160, 161]

Basic duty and state of the art

Article 82 paragraph 1 of the Federal Act on Accident Insurance obliges the employer, for the prevention of occupational accidents and occupational diseases, to “take all measures that are necessary according to experience, applicable according to the state of the art and appropriate to the given circumstances”. Paragraph 2 requires that the employees be called upon to cooperate, and paragraph 3 obliges them to support the employer, to use the personal protective equipment and to use the safety installations properly. [160]

Article 3 paragraph 1 of the Ordinance on the Prevention of Accidents and Occupational Diseases requires the employer to issue all orders and take all protective measures which comply with the provisions of the Ordinance, with the additionally applicable provisions and “otherwise with the recognised rules of safety engineering and occupational medicine”; under paragraph 2 the effectiveness of the measures has to be reviewed at appropriate intervals. The reference to the recognised rules is not limited to Swiss publications. Whether the manufacturer and operator documents evaluated in section 16, the German TRGS 561 and the notice of the German statutory accident insurance institution BG ETEM count among these rules for a Swiss company is a question of assessment that arises as soon as the same installations and vehicles are maintained in Switzerland. [161, 2, 19]

In addition there are three provisions of the same Ordinance which correspond to the German duties before work begins set out in section 25. Article 6 paragraph 1 requires that all employees working in the undertaking be informed of the dangers arising in their activities and be instructed in the measures for preventing them, on taking up the post, in the event of significant changes to the working conditions and, where necessary, repeatedly. Article 8 paragraph 1 permits work involving particular dangers to be assigned only to employees who have been trained accordingly, and requires supervision in the case of lone working. Article 11a paragraph 1 obliges the employer to call in occupational physicians and other occupational safety specialists where this is necessary for the protection of the health of the employees and for their safety. In substance this corresponds to section 6 paragraph 2b of the German Hazardous Substances Ordinance, which requires external expertise to be called in where the necessary knowledge is lacking. [161, 120]

Manufacturing, handling, storing

For hazardous substances themselves, Article 44 paragraph 1 of the Ordinance applies: where substances hazardous to health are “manufactured, processed, used, preserved, handled or stored”, or where employees may otherwise be exposed to substances in concentrations hazardous to health, the protective measures that are necessary on the basis of the properties of these substances must be taken. The list expressly covers handling and storing. The removal of a chromate-loaded component, its interim storage and its reinstallation therefore fall under the provision, without any classification of the insulation material in the as-delivered condition being material. [161]

Paragraph 2 of the same provision requires the employees to wash themselves or to take other cleaning measures where safety requires it, in particular before work breaks and after the end of work; the time used for this counts as working time. This covers the hygiene part of the protective regime which the German TRGS 561 describes under 4.1 and 4.2. [161, 19]

No MAK value for chromium(VI) compounds

The legal basis of the Swiss limit values is Article 50 paragraph 3 of the Ordinance on the Prevention of Accidents and Occupational Diseases, under which Suva may, after prior consultation of the circles concerned, issue guidelines on maximum workplace concentrations of substances hazardous to health. In the explanatory notes on the MAK and BAT values, Suva states under 1.3.3.6 that chromium(VI) compounds are carcinogenic substances “with no known carcinogenic threshold of effect” and, for this group of substances, that a health based limit value cannot be derived. The limit value is replaced by the minimisation requirement: the duration and degree of the exposure are to be kept as low as is proportionately possible, following the STOP principle with substitution in first place. Where values are set, Suva takes as its guide an additional risk of less than 4:1000 over a working life. [161, 162]

For the assessment of a maintenance operation in Switzerland it follows that staying below an air concentration is not the test. In Germany and the European Union the binding limit value of 0.005 mg/m³ has applied since 17 January 2025, and section 31 describes why air measurements do not capture skin contact and carry-over. In Switzerland the limit value falls away as a point of reference entirely; what remains is the duty to reduce the exposure as far as is technically possible and operationally reasonable. The substitution check therefore does not stand at the end, but at the beginning. [162]

Use ban and notification duty under the Chemical Risk Reduction Ordinance

Switzerland has adopted the Authorisation List of the European REACH Regulation in Annex 1.17 of the Chemical Risk Reduction Ordinance. Item 1 contains prohibitions, item 2 exemptions, item 3 a notification duty. For chromium(VI) compounds, according to Suva’s explanatory notes, the exemption applies for processes in whose end products chromium is not present in hexavalent form; in this case the minimisation requirement is regarded as fulfilled where the exposure averaged over eight hours does not exceed 0.001 mg/m³, calculated as chromium. This value is therefore not a general MAK value, but a condition of the exemption. [162, 163]

The notification duty is framed in concrete terms. Anyone who uses chromium trioxide, the acids arising from it and their oligomers, or sodium dichromate, without the end product containing chromium in hexavalent form, must report annually by 31 March, for the preceding calendar year, to the Swiss Notification Authority for Chemicals. Companies that chromium-plate workpieces are expressly named. [164]

What is covered is therefore the industrially manufactured compounds that a company purchases. Calcium and sodium chromate, which form at the interface between insulation material and chromium-alloyed hot component, have been manufactured, purchased or notified by nobody; they appear on none of these lists. The question whether the handling, storage and reuse of a chromate-loaded component is a use within the meaning of chemicals law arises in Switzerland in the same form as under the REACH Regulation in section 25. The duties under Article 44 of the Ordinance on the Prevention of Accidents and Occupational Diseases apply irrespective of this, because they attach to the properties of the substance and not to its origin. [163, 161]

Construction work: the named substance and the others

For construction work the Construction Work Ordinance applies in addition. Article 3 paragraph 1 requires planning which keeps the risks of accident, occupational disease and damage to health as low as possible. Paragraph 2 requires that, where substances particularly hazardous to health such as asbestos or polychlorinated biphenyls are suspected, the dangers be investigated and assessed in detail and the necessary measures be planned on that basis. Paragraph 3 obliges the contractor to examine, before the contract for work is concluded, which measures are necessary for occupational safety and health protection. Paragraph 4 requires the measures that depend on the result of this assessment to be laid down in the contract for work as specifically as the other contents of the contract. Paragraph 7 binds the party who passes on the execution to the implementation by the employer engaged. [165]

What regime the named substance triggers is shown by Guideline 6503 of the Federal Coordination Commission for Occupational Safety. Under 5.1 it requires the precise determination and assessment of the hazards before work begins, with reference to Article 3 paragraph 2 of the Construction Work Ordinance. Under 6.1.1, dust-generating processes are to be avoided and released fibres extracted at source; under 6.1.1.1, only class H dust extractors may be used; under 6.1.3.1, respiratory protection of type FFP3 is as a rule required at the middle hazard levels and a self-contained breathing apparatus or a powered air purifying respirator at the highest level; under 6.1.3.2, a category 3 type 5/6 protective suit where contamination cannot be ruled out. For remediation work the guideline requires separated zones with a prohibition on entry, a negative pressure of at least 20 pascal with continuous monitoring, recording and alarm, a personnel lock with four chambers, the constant presence of a specialist on the site and controlled wet removal. Under Article 86 of the Construction Work Ordinance the work has to be notified to Suva at least fourteen days before it is carried out. [166, 165]

Switzerland thus shows the same asymmetry that this analysis describes for Germany. The substance named in the ordinance triggers an investigation duty of its own and a fully formulated protective regime. For the formation of chromate on insulated chromium alloyed hot components there is no corresponding entry, although the substance belongs to the same hazard class and is released during the activities described. The scope of application has to be noted here: the Construction Work Ordinance applies to construction work, not to the maintenance of engines, turbines and vehicles. For these activities the Federal Act on Accident Insurance and the Ordinance on the Prevention of Accidents and Occupational Diseases remain the relevant rules. [165, 161, 160]

What does not exist in Switzerland

I have not found a publication of Suva or of the Federal Coordination Commission for Occupational Safety that names the formation of chromate on insulated hot components or in combustion residues. That is not a statement about whether the process occurs in Swiss installations. The documents evaluated in Section 16 concern engines, vehicles and insulation systems that are operated and maintained in Switzerland in the same way as in Germany, Austria or the Netherlands, and the thermochemical reaction does not follow national borders.

Conclusion for companies in Switzerland

The need for action is no different from that in Germany; the route to it is. In Germany the German TRGS 561 names the case and describes the protective regime; in Switzerland the chain runs through the determination of the dangers and the necessary measures under Articles 3 and 44 of the Ordinance on the Prevention of Accidents and Occupational Diseases, the calling in of occupational safety specialists where the company lacks the expertise under Article 11a, the minimisation requirement for carcinogenic substances without a threshold of effect with substitution in first place and, for construction work, the examination before the contract for work is concluded under Article 3 paragraphs 3 and 4 of the Construction Work Ordinance. Whoever points to the missing substance entry points to the absence of a designation and not to the absence of a duty. [160, 161, 162, 165]