TENS of thousands of chemicals – many of which can be hazardous – are being used in workplaces across Scotland, and the Scottish Government should pursue the issue as part of its wider environmental policies, according to an expert in the field.

Professor Andrew Watterson, of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Stirling, will raise it next Sunday, April 28, at an International Workers Memorial Day event at Holyrood.

This year’s theme is “Dangerous Substances – getting them out of work”, and he will be among the speakers at the Holyrood gathering, organised by Glasgow Anniesland MP Bill Kidd. The academic will link his presentation to a Toxics Use Reduction strategy he said should be adopted by the Scottish Government.

He said case studies have shown instances of many chemicals in workplaces, such as glyphosate, diesel and historic pollution from chromium VI, which can cause cancer when ingested through drinking water.

His argument is that what improves the workplace control of such substances for employees also improves more widely public health and the environment, and can help employers reduce costs, as well as becoming more competitive and having a healthier workforce.

Watterson said it would be a win-win – addressing climate change, air pollution, fracking and diesel – which are all part of the same mix, and would benefit workers and people in the street.

He said he envisaged enhanced roles for NHS Scotland, Health Protection Scotland, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and others, along with more action from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to take things forward.

Watterson told The National: “There are tens of thousands of chemicals in use across Scotland’s workplaces. Many of these can be hazardous on their own or in combination with other substances and could present serious risks to those exposed.

“There are concerns globally, in Europe and in the UK about all chemical control standards yet consumer standards are usually much tougher than those protecting workers.

“Workers should be entitled to the same protection as the worker public. Protecting workers better will also protect the public better as has been illustrated by the historic hexavalent chromium pollution problem from the old chemical works in Polmadie, in Glasgow.” He said the problem of chemical exposure was worsening: “It is now estimated babies born today are ‘pre-polluted’ with a cocktail of chemicals and we all have over 300 man-made chemicals in our bodies that our great grandparents didn’t have.

“So workplace exposures and wider environmental exposures and cumulative exposures from both sources pre and post-conception and through a working life need to be added together to assess lifetime risks.”

Watterson added: “For decades the health toll taken of Scottish workers by dangerous chemicals has been flagged but not acted upon by Westminster where workplace health and safety remains a reserved matter dealt with by the HSE.

“Yet each year more people die from exposures to these dangerous substances in the workplace causing cancers, respiratory and other diseases than from road traffic fatalities, murders and suicides combined.

“If Scotland adopted Toxics Use Reduction strategy along the lines of that in Massachusetts and Ontario in Canada, many of the most hazardous substances could be removed.

“On Workers Memorial Day, for the sake of those killed and made ill by dangerous materials and their families and communities, Scottish workers deserve better solutions... than currently offered by London.”