Safety and health in the use of machinery

ID 1491 | 07.11.2016

This new ILO code of practice sets out principles concerning safety and health in the use of machinery and defines safety and health requirements and precautions applicable to governments, workers and employers, and also to designers, manufacturers and suppliers of machinery.

Machinery is used in virtually all work activities, and thus presents certain safety and health risks in a large number of workplaces all over the world. Many new types of machinery are also introduced each year, hence the urgent need for a systematic approach to ensure safety and health when machinery is put on the market.

The ILO Global Strategy on Occupational Safety and Health adopted in 2003 called for the revision of the Guarding of Machinery Convention, 1963 (No. 119), and Recommendation (No. 118), and recommended that “Priority should also be given to the development of a new instrument on the guarding of machinery in the form of a code of practice”.

ILO
International Labour Office Geneva
2013