Chemical risks

Going beyond regulatory requirements, Colas devotes considerable research and organizational resources to the management of risks related to the use of chemical products and to ensure the safety of its personnel. Today, the Group's pioneering work in the removal of undesirable chemical substances during its production processes has been corroborated by the strategies underlying REACH, which stands for Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemical Substances, the new European Community regulation on chemicals and their safe use. The REACH regulation calls for the gradual implementation of controls on all chemical substances before they can be manufactured or placed on the market in the European Union. Six priority areas for action have been identified:

• solvents: gradual elimination of their use in laboratories, solvent dispensing systems in workshops, and of toluene in paint.
• pigments: moving away from heavy metal-based pigments in paints together with the development of non-powdered formulations.
• anti-tack agents: favoring the use of plant-based alternatives to fuel oil in the production and application of asphalt mixes.
• bitumen fumes: support for studies carried out on the European level by independent organizations. A number of international studies have concluded that bitumen fumes emitted during road work are not carcinogenic. In France, on the basis of all information available to date, these chemical substances present a low risk for health and safety and preventive measures implemented are adequate to mitigate this risk based on the terms of the French Labor Code . The French occupational medicine authorities have thus waived the requirement for reinforced medical monitoring (as cited in the report of the national multi-disciplinary workgroup examining occupational health within the construction industry dated July 3, 2006).
• resins: assistance with the GreenCoat research project for the development of sustainable chemicals, launched with other partners and with the support of Agence Nationale de la Recherche, the French national research agency, under the aegis of the ChemSud Foundation and in association with the ChemSud program of study.
• waste oils: management of the elimination or recovery of this type of waste in all countries, which forms the bulk of the Group's hazardous waste. In 2011, the Group's rate of recovery for waste oils was 67% worldwide.
  

Measuring progress

• The ICB Emulsions production plant in northern Ireland has won a Chamber of Commerce award for the elimination all its effluents
• Roughly 50% of Aximum's entire paint production has a pro-environment label, with 47 products bearing the French environment label, NF Environnement