Occupational safety and health in Europe - state and trends 2023 
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work – EU-OSHA 107 
less environmentally critical processes (see for example, the principles of ‘green engineering’, like 
prevention instead of treatment of waste288). 
Chemical technologies have ousted traditional materials and processes. The United Nations ’ 
(UNEP) ‘Global Chemical Outlook’289 documents a strong growth of chemical production between 1970 
and 2010. The value of the global chemical production grew from US$171 billion  in 1970, to 
approximately US$ 5.7 trillion in 2019, roughly 33 times more. 290 The EU had a share of $1.3 trillion or 
about 20% of the global value. In less than two decades between 2000 and 2017, the capacity doubled 
and grew from 1,186 million tons to 2,276 million tons.291,292 
The reasons for this strong growth are: a) the replacement of traditional materials (wood, stone, iron 
and other metals, paper, natural fibres) by chemically based products (foremost plastics and multi -
material products) ; b) the replacement of traditional technologies by chemical processes  (e.g. 
gluing instead of screwing of connections in metal, two -component paints); c) the development of new 
products (e.g. electronic devices, new types of batteries, nano); and d) new applications (e.g. specific 
fertilisers and pesticides).  
Approximately 300 million tons of synthetic chemicals were consumed in the EU i n 2019, 223 million 
tons, or 74%, were regarded as hazardous to health.  
 
Table 29: Production and consumption of chemicals by hazard class in the EU in 2019 – Eurostat293  
 
According to the detailed register data of the Swedish Chemicals Agency, 10 million tonnes of synthetic 
chemicals were used in Sweden in 2019 that were classified as hazardous to health and the environment 
(not counting petrol). That equals approximately 1 ton per citizen of such chemicals. 294  
The ESEN ER 2019 survey provides information about sectors that reported a particularly high 
prevalence of dangerous substances. The percentage of enterprises reporting handling or exposure 
to chemicals are: 5 0% in ‘M anufacturing’, 49% in ‘Construction, waste mana gement, and water and 
electricity supply’, and 47% in ‘Human health and social work activities’.295 
The prevention of risks from the use of chemicals at workplaces is done according to extensive 
regulatory frameworks. The most relevant pieces of legislation at the EU level are the OSH Framework 
Directive, the Chemical Agents Directive, and the Carcinogens and Mutagens Directive. Legislation in 
other policy areas contributes to the reduction of risks from dangerous substances in workplaces, such 
as EU legislation on chemical substances and mixtures (CLP, the regulation on classification, labelling 
and packaging of chemicals, its predecessor directive was already issued in 1967; REACH the 
regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals from 2007; and also 
specific EU and international legislation on specific aspects such as chemicals in waste, storage and 
transport, in specific products like batteries and cars, in specific sectors like agriculture, in natural 
environments like in water and soil, and in consumer products like food, detergents and cosmetics).